The state of America: Post a good picture of yourself on Facebook because it could be your last
Maybe you’re going to a graduation ceremony later this week, or a wedding over the weekend.
Perhaps your only plan is to have no plan at all and to just chill in your backyard while flipping burgers.
No matter what you do, there’s a very good chance you’ll have your picture taken at some point, either by someone else or by yourself.
So look good, people, because it could be the first and the last impression you make on the world.
With the number of fatal mass shootings happening in the U.S. these days it gets more and more likely that the next picture taken of you could be the one the world gets to know you by. It could be that selfie you took last Friday night while out to dinner with friends, the one where you held your glass up next to your face, arched your brows and stuck your tongue out. Actually, erase that one — your family would be embarrassed.
Maybe it’ll be the one you took Sunday morning through your rearview mirror just before you walked into church, the one that actually turned out so good you just had to post it.
Or it could be the shot your husband took of you and the boys just after their ballgame ended, with your arms around each of them. That would be a good one because news organizations could easily blur their faces but everyone would still know they were your kids and see how proud you were.
Really, how much thought do you put into what you look like in these pictures and whether or not that is the first and last impression you want to make on the world? You should take it seriously because there is a real chance your picture will be in the paper or on a website someday soon.
In the news business these shots are often called “handouts.” They’re the photos victims’ families “hand out” to news organizations after their loved one is involved in some sort of tragedy, which these days in America usually means a mass shooting.
More often nowadays, news people can use social media to find photos of shooting victims. Almost everyone has a Facebook page or is signed up on Twitter or, even better, Instagram.
So while most people in this country spend their time arguing about what the government can do to stop these heinous shootings from happening, you should really focus on something you can control: How you want to look when the world sees you for the first and last time.
Not all of us are as lucky as John F. Kennedy, who had literally thousands of high-quality photographs taken of him in the years before he was gunned down in Dallas in 1963. John Lennon, too. His family had some terrific images to choose from after he was shot to death, including the one of him and wife Yoko Ono lying in bed together, naked but not fully exposed.
But imagine if you are killed tomorrow by a crazed gunman — and it could happen — do you have enough respectable shots of yourself posted on social media? Or does your family at least have access to your personal files, and do they know the password to your cloud so they can pick one out for you?
Now I know none of you want to think about this next part — I really don’t either. But more important than finding the right picture of yourself is making sure you have one of your child ready, just in case. Is their hair brushed? Does their shirt have any stains on it? Are they making a silly face, and if so, is that how you want the world to remember them?
I still recall 17 years ago, in the days after the Columbine High School shooting, sitting over a newspaper and staring at headshots of the 13 victims. I couldn’t help but notice how pretty one of them was, and how if she had known what was going to happen to her how much thought she would have put into making sure that was the image she wanted me to remember her by.
I can’t forget her now (I wouldn’t anyway) because the same class photo of Rachel Scott hangs in the hallway of my daughter’s school. And there is a huge banner with Rachel’s picture on it draped in the hallway of the high school my daughter will attend next fall.
It’s a great picture of Rachel, actually. She’s smiling and her hair looks great. It’s an image that projects just how happy she was, and I really think she’d have been thrilled knowing that was the first, and last, impression the world had of her.
So ask yourself today: Do you have a picture ready of yourself, or your child, that will leave the same kind of impression on the world?
You should. Just in case.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/state-america-photo-post-article-1.2671853
