Lights May Guide You Home, But Who’s Guiding Your Photo Captions?

We’ve had enough of these captions. Have you?

Think of an old, worn-out pair of flip flops. You latch onto it for as long as you can before you realise the futility of it. Now think of those photographs on social media that you chance upon regularly. You’re used to the daily dosage, and by now you’re at peace with the needless oversharing.

But have you considered the bemusing captions that have either lost their meaning due to overuse, or have nothing to do with the photograph in question?

There are, by and large, three prototypes that future generations will look back upon and cringe.

The ‘Happy-Girls-Are-the-Prettiest’ Lot

We understand and appreciate Audrey Hepburn’s sentiments, but we’re quite sure that there is an entire range of other expressions and moods that could be explored too.

This “happy’’ lot is seen pouting, smiling, somersaulting, running, squatting, kneeling, dancing and walking in photographs without any reservations about not having given other emotions and descriptions a fair chance.

Here’s an example: Hepburn’s a volcano of emotions, wherever you’ve seen her. She animates your screen and livens up a dead day effortlessly.

Now imagine if she were to put up a photograph like the one below captioned “happy girls are the prettiest’’. Now she does the same tomorrow and the day after and the day after the day after tomorrow. She also posts each of these “happy-pretty’’ captioned shots separately.

Now, If you’re caught facepalm-ing at the recycled subtexts, you have joined our school! Hey happy girls, you are pretty, you are happy... maybe there are other things you can be too?

The ‘Lights-Will-Guide-You-Home’ Lot

Guidance comes best in the form of Chris Martin looking into your eyes. We agree.

But when photographs of azure blue skies, picturesque mustard fields, herculean mountains, or wind-swept faces pops up on one’s screen captioned “lights will guide you home’’ or “touch me and I will follow in your afterglow’’, our imagination tries to follow the train of thought and make the connection, but somehow heaves a sigh of distress, plops down on the floor and gives up.

The ‘All-the-World’s-A-Stage’ Lot

This one, reserved for the very end, is a special lot we hold quite close to our hearts. They are their own chicken soup for the soul.

They’re old buds with the Bard, they’re waiting to soak life in, one quote at a time, and seek inspiration no matter where it lies. So if you find a photograph of a rickety old fence captioned “Miles to go before I sleep’’ or a photograph of a coffee mug on a bedside table captioned “Change is the only constant in life ’’, you will know that you’re in the company of this profound group.