Day 113: Looking Down Is Easy To Photograph

2026-05-30

Hello! A direct follow-up to yesterday's photograph. Taken on the same walk, in the same(-ish) weather.

A bit farther away from the regular paved sidewalk, this clump of rounded leaves didn't capture my attention at first. I had paused there to dry the front of my camera lens (rubbing it with my shirt, which I know you technically shouldn't do) and that pause provided an opportunity for me to look around.

I saw these leaves with small water droplets out of the corner of my eye. I leaned over, aimed my camera down, and took an image. I had also taken an alternate photograph where all the leaves were in sharp focus, but it was a darker and busier image than I intended.

My camera isn't waterproof or weather-resistant, so I'm always taking a risk when it comes to inclement weather, but it's always worked out for me so far. I just have to remember to clean the lens every now and then so fog or raindrops don't build up on the front element and ruin the image quality of any photos I capture.

Now that I'm home, I'm uninstalling a few apps. I've always tried to get down to ten apps on my phone total, and while I've gotten close (by disabling the app store, as an extreme example), there are just some apps I need to use for utility's sake. Disregarding the obvious examples of the settings app and the camera, I also have three different messaging apps.

Text messages are the original form of social media. What we know as "social media" isn't really social.

I'm trying to find a more accurate term for that kind of "social media". You can keep up with friends, sure, but you could more easily do that off of Snapchat or Instagram, and I use the humble text message to keep up with people. I hope to get everyone on Signal...

I've heard the term "parasocial media" go around, and while it's clever, I think it's a lazy and loaded term that underestimates how different these apps and websites actually function compared to how we think they are meant to function. My current go-to is algorithmic ads platform, or algorithmic content app. Still relatively neutral, but puts the whole industry in a different frame of mind that might be worth exploring.

Cheers,
David