People and Their Pictures

People take pictures of the weirdest things. I’m sitting on a park bench and the woman next to me is attempting an artistic photo of her handbag which somehow requires her to crouch down and turn sideways. The rise of various online platforms to publish these snapshots to show people how cool you are/exciting your life is/strongly your creative juices flow seems to make everyone evaluate each moment based on how postable it is.
I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy sharing a great picture of the peel and eat shrimp covered in Old Bay that I had last Saturday on the deck of a restaurant overlooking the water, but there are limits. I had to unfollow a girl from high school who has taken to shooting every piece of food laid in front of her. Others seem to only post when they’ve had 3 or more cocktails and then proceed to snap 10 out of focus group shots of themselves with random partygoers.
I’m all for visual sharing – great way to keep up and see interesting people/places/things – but an overactive camera phone may make me think a little less of you. Just FYI.

Tourist Tip 3

Before you stop a local for directions, make at least a mildly legitimate effort to figure out where you are and where you are trying to go. Standing directly in front of a landmark and asking which direction it is occasionally makes me laugh, but mostly makes me question your spacial reasoning. Yes, World Trade Center is the giant construction zone in front of you with a skyscraper sticking out of it.

Tourist Tip 2

Sneakers do not go with skirts. I’m disturbed to have just observed an entire group of you flaunting this logic. Your only excuse is you are desperate to have your Android (because I can say with confidence you are not an iPhone gang) stolen on a subway platform when Googling which direction is uptown. If that’s the case, well done ladies.

Tourist Tip

Standing on a corner in the middle of a group of 6 people and raising your hand to heaven not going to get you a taxicab. This is not high school English.