Why don't you write?

I always think of our modern times as being characterized, in part, by an excess of communication. Phone, email, text, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and blogs flood our days with the details of our friend's lives and yet, I still miss my long distance friends. I always think people a century ago must have had to wait weeks before getting important news about their loved ones. Then I read in National Geographic that a century ago, in large cities like New York, the mail was delivered up to seven times per day and that people used postcards to invite each other for dinner, inquire about their health or love life, or just say hello.

In that context, it would seem that we have always had the desire to communicate to each other on a frequent basis. I'll venture a guess, however, it was only the elite and the wealthy that had the opportunity to sit at home all day sending missives back and forth. The working class would have been slaving away 12-14 hours a day in a factory or someone else's home, and would have to wait to find out if something wonderful or dreadful had happened to a loved one. In that regard, we've made great progress. As annoying as it may be that we so addicted to communication, sometimes to the point that we use it to ignore or avoid actual in person communication, there is something lovely about the fact that should a person be accepted to a school, have a baby or come down with an illness, they can tell their loved ones right away regardless of their economic station.

Damn you Flickr!

Unless you're one of my dozen friends on Flickr, you wouldn't know that I've become obsessed; which is not a good thing to happen while I'm unemployed. A friend of mine had been bugging me to join for years and I kept writing back that I was perfectly happy with ofoto, now Kodak Gallery. Whenever I took pictures, which was usually trips and special occasions, I uploaded them there and invited friends and family to look at them. They could buy prints if they wanted although I don't know if anyone, other than me, has bought prints of my photos.

Finally, one day in June last year, after finding some pics of Santa Monica on Flickr, I thought it would be fun to upload some of my own since I'd been photographing my walks on the beach for a while. I uploaded several hundred photos from the last few years in L.A. only to discover that you have to subscribe to Flickr to upload that many. It took me almost a year but the day I planned my UK trip, April 1, 2008, I broke out the credit card and paid the $25 for a year of Flickr. Uh oh. I started uploading everything I had and tagging and sorting. Then I decided that I needed a new camera for my trip to the UK, my old one was well over four years old and less than two megapixels! Most camera phones are better than that now.

Two weeks and 700 photos later, I was a Flickr tagging and sorting maniac. Good thing I don't have a job because I spent about five whole days downloading, reviewing, tweaking, exporting, uploading, naming, tagging and organizing my photos. The reason I am reluctant to join these types of sites is not because I don't see the inherent value, it's because I know that if I like it, I'll get sucked in. It wasn't enough to have a place to send my friends to see pics of my trip, I needed to get more exposure! I joined groups, I looked at other people's photos, I submitted my photos, I made comments, I favorited and I tagged and tagged and tagged. Snapping like crazy at everything, I've uploading another 700 photos in the last month and signed up for Flickr stats which has since become a 7pm ritual, seeing how my photos performed that day. Performed? What's my ROI for this endeavor?

So far, it's not very good. Flickr'ing is keeping me from diligently applying for jobs and I've instead become obsessed with walls and pavement, no doubt fruitful pursuits. What I'd really like to see is more of my friends on Flickr. I know, I know! It's true though, you can't imagine how happy it makes me (and will make you) to see pictures of far away friends, family, babies, dogs and vacations pop up on the Flickr homepage. When I was in England, my relatives teased me for taking so many photos. They said I looked like tourist (imagine!) I explained that in the world that's young and hip, everyone takes pictures of everything. It's just another way that we communicate in this digital age. Showing people what we see through our eyes. That's a beautiful thing, no? So what are you waiting for?