Ghost Photography

Justin E. H. Smith in his Substack newsletter, Hinternet:

Nobody wants to hear anyone else’s dreams, and nobody wants to see anyone else’s photo albums. A rare few good souls might express interest at first, but will almost certainly find their attention flagging long before the sharer is finished.

As to dreams, the claim can be measured each time a person takes to social media to divulge the surreal sequence from which they’ve just awoken. I’ve been keeping track, and have observed that consistently and without exception they get fewer likes for their dreams than when telling stories from their waking life, or telling jokes, or lies. You can see, in that mysterious way social media telegraphically transmits distant affects, that the dream-sharers regret their decision, resolve never to do it again, only to find, the next time they wake up from naked bumper-cars with their camp counselors from childhood, that they just can’t help themselves, and the cycle of oversharing and regret begins again.

As to family photos, let us be honest: they all look the same.

More here.