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What a photo tells a stranger
Read one of your own photos the way a stranger would and find the things in it that say where you are.
1Watch
One photo, read slowly
One photo, read slowly
A kid takes a selfie on her front step and the frame holds on the photo. Then it moves into the corners: the number on the door, a street sign over her shoulder, the crest on her school jumper, a clock through the window. It stops with her thumb over Post.
24 secondsYou have seen the photo. Now look at what is in it.
2The idea
You already know not to post your address
Nobody in grade seven types their address under a photo. It gets out in the corners instead: the door, the sign, the crest, the view from the window. A stranger does not need you to tell them where you are. They need four photos and ten minutes.
This is not a reason to stop posting. Posting is fine. It is a reason to read the corners before you tap, the way a stranger would, because a stranger will.
3The idea
The four questions a photo answers
Every photo answers some of these, whether you meant it to or not:
Where. A door number, a street sign, a shop, a view.
Which school. A crest, a kit, a bus number, a building.
What time. A clock, the light, the caption, the day you always post.
Who else. Tags, faces, the same friend in every shot.
One photo answering one question is nothing. Ten photos answering the same question is a routine, and a routine is a place and a time. That is the thing a stranger is actually collecting.
4The idea
Watch it work once
Priya posts a selfie on her front step at 3:50 on a Tuesday. Door number in the corner. Street sign over her shoulder. School jumper on. Ten minutes later, a stranger who has never met her has this: the street, the number, the school, and that she is on that step at ten to four on a school day.
She typed none of that. So before she posts, she reads the corners: what is behind me, what is on me, what does the time say. She crops the door out and takes the jumper off next time. The photo is still fine. It just stops answering questions.
5Look
The four corners
The same doorstep photo, marked up
A selfie on a front step with four circles drawn on it: the door number, the street sign, the crest on the jumper, and the houses across the road.
Where. Which school. What time. Who else. Four questions, and most photos answer at least two of them.
6Decide
Which of these gives a stranger the most?
Pick one to carry on.
7Build it
Build a stranger's file on you
The profile builder
Pick four of your own recent posts, or four sample ones. Drag every clue you can find into a file: school, street, routine, friends. The file fills in as you go and shows what a stranger would have by the end.
Use your own posts if you can. It is more useful when it is uncomfortable.
8Find them
Which of these say where you are, without saying it?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
9Say it
The question before every post
Say it once, like a habit
“What is in the corners?”
You will need it about four seconds before you tap Post, for the rest of your life.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Go through your last ten posts on your actual phone and read each one as a stranger. Count the ones that say where. Write the number down, and next to it what you would change.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Every photo says where. Find the where before you post.
Next lesson: Location, on and offBadge 1 · Your Footprint
1.1What a photo tells a stranger1.2Location, on and off1.3The account you forgot★Badge Challenge