The old question, when a tree falls in the forest and there’s nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound? has an answer. The tree does not make a sound. Sound is a human construct. It’s arbitrary. When the tree crashes, air waves ripple outward and molecules collide. But the sound is either a “crash,” a “thud,” or a “kaboom.” The sound, as bias, only exists when an ear and a mind interpret those vibrations.
The same holds for pictures. A photograph isn’t human. It doesn’t smile. It only shows a face that might be perceived as smiling. Some see a grin, others see a smirk. For instance, someone might say, Wow, look at Jennifer, this is the happiest I’ve ever seen her. And that’s the truth: it’s the happiest you have ever seen her. But was she happy? Maybe she faked the smile. Maybe the part where someone stepped on her toe was cropped out, and what looks like joy is a grimace of pain. Maybe the caption says, The day my foot got crushed at the concert, but you didn’t read it. You saw Jennifer, the bubbly girl you’ve always known, and your mind filled in the rest.
This becomes crucial when we scroll through the sludge of social media. You don’t see happy people; you construct people who appear happy to you. When you’re gone, the smile dissolves. The picture sits there, mute. There’s no one left to say, They looked happy.
And maybe there never was.
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