It all started with my discovery of Lightbox.
Recommended by my homeboy Nudy (an officiando of “the next big thing” in many facets of life, but that’s another post altogether), Lightbox is a photo sharing app for Android phones that is most comparable to iPhone’s Instagram, which as we all know, has taken the world by storm by allowing folks to dress up their everyday experiences with fancy photography filters.
I realized a few weeks ago that I’m not built for every social network on the scene. I’d downloaded Path (an app that’s a hybrid of Tumblr, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram that literally allows you to document every. minute. of. your. day.) and after a week of using it, it occurred to me that my routine of work-home-school-TV watching-writing-music listening wasn’t entertaining enough to document, step-by-step. Twitter, my blog, and Tumblr are my social mediums of choice because the fun stuff goes on between my ears. It’s my observations on the my day-to-day that are worth documenting. My routine on its own is pretty ordinary.
Even with that bit of self-awareness, I downloaded this Lightbox thing to see if I’d like it. And what do you know, I did. A lot. So like any quarterlifer with a fancy photo app, I filled my profile with pics of… myself. Me, with my fro out. Me, with my afro puff. Me, chilling on the couch. Me, gussied up for the New Year. I mixed in some flicks of homecooked meals and glasses filled with spirits for good measure. I wanted everyone with an Android device to stop pining over Instagram and discover this jewel of an app at their fingertips. So enamored was I with Lightbox that I started browsing through the profiles of its Featured and Suggested Users.
With each slide of my finger across my phone’s screen, I saw sparkling city lights, breath-taking landscapes, quirky “around the house” pics featuring well-decorated homes, plates of rich, delicious meals, and fashion combinations that I couldn’t have pieced together on my most stylish days.
Then I thought about the photo app profiles I encounter on a daily basis; filled with “look at me” and little else.*
What does it say about my life that I’d have a Lightbox page full of pics of my face at different angles? Pics accompanied by captions of “Having a cute day,” as if a day where I look especially attractive is an anomaly worth recording.
It tells me that I need to step up my experiences and expand my scope. There are moments in life worth remembering. How my hair looked one afternoon while I sat on the couch isn’t one of them.
And based on the way many of “us” use photo apps, I’m not the only one who needs this advice.
[*] With the exception of my friend Nudy. His life is dope. As are the photos that reflect it. Lol.
