I have thought for a long, long time that I would have a much easier time meeting people if people made first impressions by showing each other photos they had taken (or other forms of art they had made) rather than through the combination of words and body language that people actually first meet through. I mean this for both friendship and dating. I don't mean photos of ourselves, I mean of scenery, cool patterns of bubbles we found in the water, etc.
The reason is that a LOT of my thoughts about the world, who I am, romantic notions, etc. are tied up in visual things. I am like Temple Grandin in that regard--I have strong feelings about places, whether real or imaginary, and patterns. While a lot of this I have trouble bringing into the external world in ANY form (because I kind of suck at drawing/painting, which means that I can't create anything close to what I see in my head), there's a lot more I can do to "reach out" by showing people things I have seen that I like visually than I can by trying to explain myself verbally.
I started a Flickr account, on the advice of someone I met who said I seemed to have "an eye for beauty". I have gotten over 100 followers (which I know isn't much for Flickr--I'm sure the really talented photographers have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands), but still, I have a feeling of connection when people "like" my photos on there that I never get in groups of people chatting about stuff.
The problem is, of course, there is no real-life contact, or even online friendships, that ever comes out of liking photos on there. But I've wondered about other sites, for instance Instagram. It seems as though Instagram is set up like a combination between a photo sharing site and a social network. However, I don't know if it's realistic that two people who like each other's Instagram photos would ever become friends on there and start chatting.
Does anyone know of a way that people can share visual stuff and actually spark a friendship or even possibly a romance based on that??
23 Apr 2015, 12:38 am
