The oversharing of vacation photos

And is she provably, demonstrably hot?

 

Yesterday our friend posted four photos of the build-up and aftermath of her family pictures. One post received 114 “likes” and counting. Another 60 and counting.

Couple random related thoughts:

1. I could be totally off about all of this. She appears to be beloved, and people do appear to be interested in the mundane details of her life.

2. This has to be the most photographed generation of children in history. I wonder what, if any, effect this will have.

3. Women really seem to “like” each other’s posts a lot. Even though it may arise from insecurity, perhaps the feedback is healthy and affirming for people who need it. I think a lot of women have long felt alone and insecure and often unsupported throughout life. Maybe the social media support system is helpful in some ways, for some people.

Social media is fascinating.

 

Will be hard for these kids to choose which pictures of themselves to post on Throwback Thursday a couple of decades from now, because there will be 728,304 to choose from.

 

Despite being the Wayne Gretzky of SJ “likes,” I’ve never gotten close to that many on Facebook for any single post. Not even the ones announcing the birth of my kids.

 

Mrs. Whitman was momentarily hard on herself this weekend because she “forgot to take an ‘opening day picture’ of Little Whitman.”

“I just feel stupid. All these people are posting opening day pictures.”

I played baseball until I was 26. I think the only wmexisting photos of me in uniform are the official Picture Day ones we took every year.

 

I really do think it’s a woman thing.

 

She really does seem to have a "what other people are doing" issue, if I'm reading your descriptions accurately.

 

There are maybe a dozen pictures of my football-playing son, over six seasons, and most of those are the official team photos. That's because football is my parental responsibility. There are approximate 5,621 photos of him making crafts, because that's his mum's universe.

Anecdotal evidence to support your thesis that it's a gender thing.

 

We probably have upwards of 100,000 pictures of each of our kids. Less than half of 1 percent of those have made it into the public sphere.

 

There are certain photos that somehow become a "thing." First day of school is a big one. Kid holding up a sign that he/she is in first grade/second grade/third grade, etc., etc. Sometimes there's a last day of school wave, too, showing how much they've grown in a year.

I have very mixed emotions about it all. I like seeing my friends' kids! I still recall as a kid when my parents kind of stopped hanging out with their old hometown friends. That will never happen to me, and I'm grateful. On the downside, it creates a lot of social pressure, and I'm sure there are some negative effects on some kids when life has turned into one long performance.

Keep in mind that I'm also super impatient and hate to stop what I'm doing to pose for a photo, so that colors my views, I'm sure.

 

I've got one old (ancient) friend who keeps posting these rally cries. I'll take vacation photos anytime instead.

 

My older son was premature and had his first baths in a big yellow bowl. God, he was small. Anyway, his mum has taken a picture of him on his birthday every year with the same bowl. So, at one, he was sitting in it, and so on. He's 12 now, and he just held the bowl in his big mitts this year. I like those pictures.