where the same moment will travel to

We live in a strange time where our impact on others can reach mind numbing levels, even if by accident. Out of college, I started sharing reviews on Google Maps mainly to get access to some of their early “reward” events in San Francisco with my girlfriend at the time. We went to Alcatraz for one, touring incredible lego portraits by Ai Weiwei of political prisoners. As I traveled, I kept with it, mostly to praise places that were especially kind or delicious or beautiful. I reviewed a spot on my most recent trip to the Dolomites only to find the review hilarious flagged for nudity. Some automatic review system must not have appreciated just how incredible the food was and had gotten it confused with something inappropriate. I stumbled on my stats while submitting the appeal and nearly reported it as a bug, confused by how high they were:

This made me wonder where my Pexels stats were at, considering the last time I checked I was nearing a million views of my collective photos:

It’s mind boggling even as I continue to work on software that powers a huge portion of the internet (WordPress). Years ago, I read a book called Present Shock that still reverberates within me the older I get. In particular, this quote comes to mind looking at my life through numbers:

“We can produce more effects in more than one place a time, each of us now having the global reach formerly reserved for kings, presidents, and movie stars.”

Douglas Rushkoff

While I still contribute to Pexels from time to time and Google Map reviews, my current passion is to upload more photos to the WordPress.org Photo repository. There are no stats (for now) and I don’t quite know the impact but perhaps you might recognize my photos in these official WordPress.org patterns: Fullscreen fixed cover within another cover, Fullscreen image with right content area, Fullscreen cover image gallery, Cover Image with Bold Heading and Button. Once more, all the patterns available for all to use.

Now when I raise my camera to my eye trying to capture a moment, I wonder where the same moment will travel to and who it just might help get their story out there. Perhaps you too might have a way to contribute to the betterment of our society, whether through a Google maps review about how great a restaurant handled a food allergy or a contribution to the various WordPress.org directories. I hope we all can take the time to contribute in the ways we can to those around us, whether we ever truly feel the impact.