A few days ago, I watched a video on Facebook about photographers and their perspective. I believe it was six photographers, photographing the same man, but they were each given a different story about him. The results of the photos were more than interesting to say the least. In that same day, I saw a meme of children playing, which seemed very innocent to me, but the caption attached twisted it into something far worse.
Over the weekend, I spent the day with a friend (male friend, might I add), that I hadn’t seen in 5 years, nothing serious. When I returned home that evening and went through pics I had taken that day, a light bulb went off. People believe anything you post onto social media, if you spin it correctly. Everyone gets caught up on photos and their captions, not knowing the truth behind them. I had a picture of my friend going through his phone while we were waiting for our food. Something so boring, right? After going through all photos from the day, I chose that photo as the one I’d use.
I am a very private person, my personal life hardly ever makes it to social media, so I knew this particular photo would stir some things up. I talked with one of my girlfriends about when would be the perfect time to post the photo. She told me to wait late at night, when people tend to do the most lurking. Next I needed a caption. We brainstormed, and came up with “distant lover”. Once I decided when and what the caption would say, I told the friend that was photographed what was going on. He thought it was funny.
So here goes nothing! I posted the pic! Not that I cared, but it got a minimum number of likes, but that was expected. I’ll have you know I received some interesting messages the next day. The most interesting of them all, was from a guy I was supposed to be going on a date with at the end of the week.
Mind you, I am a single woman, free to date as I please. He went on about how he knew that’s why I wasn’t giving him any of my time, so on and so forth. I explained to him that the photo was an experiment, but that fragile male ego just wouldn’t let him believe it. The kicker part of the convo was when he said “Right glad I didn’t waste my time and money“, ok sir, if that’s how you feel.
I received other messages as well, but the people they came from were totally expected.
The sole purpose of this was to see first hand how people believe anything. People see things others post and romanticize. We all tend to be a little extra with our captions on pictures, that’s why one should know not to believe everything you read. We can lead people to believe things about our lives that simply are NOT true. Stop falling victim to any and everything that you see. Evaluate what you’re putting out for the world to see.
The fact that men still view women as “their property” was something else I learned from this. As long as I portray myself as a damsel in distress, men are interested. That’s not how this works fellas. When you are single, you can date whomever you please. Once it is agreed that you are in a relationship, then the dating of others should cease. Oh, here’s a little secret, you can date people and not be sexual with them. *Gasps* shocking, but true. We are not your property because you took us on a few dates.
Back to the original issue at hand. Who are you attempting to convince with your captions, yourself or the public? A picture is worth a thousand words, what words are giving your photos value?
Since writing this, I found the link to the video I mentioned, so take a look http://www.shutterbug.com/content/lab-pushes-boundaries-photography-decoy#ZSw7m6MjeGmpwY87.97
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