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A few years ago, a video went viral. The saddest thing is that it happens year after year. It's New Year's Eve in Paris. Thousands of people gathered at the Arc de Triomphe to celebrate midnight.

The camera pans across the crowd. Everyone, without exception, has their phone raised, recording. Absolutely everyone.

They don't watch. They record.

No one is experiencing the moment they traveled thousands of miles for. Everyone is watching through a 6-inch screen, trying to capture it for those who aren't there.

But if everyone is recording and no one is watching, what's the point of being there?

Who are they filming this for? For those who didn't come? But why would those people watch shaky phone footage of something they didn't see themselves?

The answer is simple: they record it to prove they were there. To prove their lives are interesting. To gather evidence that they're winning this race.

Go to any gym right now. See what's going on there.

Some people set up their phones to record their workouts. Not to check their form. Not to track their progress. But to post them. To show everyone: they're working out. That they're goal-oriented. That they're better than those who aren't in the gym right now.

And here's where the most revealing part begins: they kick people out of the frame. They get annoyed if someone walks past their lens. They change their approach because someone "ruined" their video.

And then—and this is even worse—they post the video, shaming the person who dared interrupt their recording. How dare they use a public space while someone else is filming? They shame strangers online for the crime of… “existing in a shared space.” (Kudos to Joey Swall, bodybuilder and fitness influencer, for creating the “Mind Your Own Business” movement to stop this kind of behavior.)

The training itself becomes secondary to its documentation.

They're not here to get stronger. They're here to be seen getting stronger. They're not competing against their past performance—they're competing for attention, for approval, for proof that they're ahead of everyone else.