Hashtag Chicago

Maybe I am a little late to be in awe of technology.
I frequent Facebook approximately once a day. Maybe once every two days. Usually I look at and "like" pictures. I can watch my friend's children grow and read about the funny little comments they make. I have not been in awe of Facebook. It is utilitarian. It is a million perspectives of people that I at one time shared space and time with. I would be fine living without it. I just haven't officially taken the Facebook -Delete plunge. I fear that I would miss all the pregnancy announcements and babies would suddenly just APPEAR in my life.

Instagram is another social media that is primarily a string of photographs. I follow approximately eight friends on Instagram. Like Facebook it is another perspective from another person's view but without the commentary. It is like a literal snapshot of "this is what my eyes are seeing at this very moment". You can make hashtags to link your photo to a greater common theme. Like #Chicago. Now this... this put me in awe.

Last night, just before retiring to bed after a delicious dinner at Prairie Grass with Ben, Pat, and Kelly, I sleepily scrolled through Instagram and just happened to select the #Chicago link. This carried me away to all pictures taken by people also in Chicago within the previous hour. In neat little inch by inch squares, I soaked in the thousands of perspectives of people who were (in theory) within a 45 mile radius of me. It was like leaping into a security control panel of one hundred television screens and experiencing all the nooks and crannies of the city that someone else was experiencing.

Somewhere...
someone was standing beneath the Navy Pier ferris wheel which spread it's fine white lights across the star-abandoned Chicago sky.
someone was sipping on a pumping beer... that wasn't Andy
someone was capturing the city of big shoulders beneath bottom-heavy-beautiful clouds from the Kennedy
someone was enjoying a candlelit dinner at the Trump tower
four Asian girls were splurging on calories while wearing cute knit hats at a McDonalds
someone was studying from a composition notebook while drinking a whisky
and someone was taking a picture from a plane as they departed our lovely city

(We won't talk about the man taking a practically nude picture of himself in the mirror (in a very bland and ugly bathroom with a fake wood door). Every city has it's unattractive backside after all.)

A hundred little perspectives... a hundred little beings. I could compare what my eyes saw this evening (breaded chicken and a fresh piece of pumpkin pie) and then see what the world experienced at the very same time. I am a big nerdo ... it was pretty neat. Then I went to bed. I did not take or post a picture of my pillow.