judge city

Here is the scenario: Betty is your friend. Betty wants to show you a picture of the beautiful beach she visited over the weekend. Betty pulls up the picture on her cell phone and hands it you.

Do you:

(a.) Look at the picture and then hand the phone back to Betty

(b.) Look at the picture and then swipe to see other pictures without asking if there are additional photos of the beach Betty would like you to view

If you picked (b.)…ya rude. And you are most likely a Serial Swiper. Yea, looking through all of Betty’s pictures once you got your sneaky little thumbs on her phone is not your first rodeo.

Did Betty say she had a ton of pictures you should swipe to see? No. She said she had a picture to show you. One picture of a beach. One. Had she said, “oh yea there’s a couple more after” or “there’s other pics if you want to look through them” or some sort of indication, permission even, to look at her other pictures then viewing Betty’s other pictures would have been okay.

But, sometimes it’s hard to tell who a Serial Swiper is. At this point, even though I don’t have any nudes/incriminating pics on my phone, I still feel like this when someone takes my phone after showing them a picture:

When I show you a picture or when I post a picture I am choosing to show that picture. There are hundreds of pictures on my phone not posted for  a reason. While I don’t have top-secret photos, they’re mine to share as I please. And yea, maybe I don’t want your nosy ass stumbling upon some text screenshots from my boyfriend that I saved because I am lame.

Okay, is it the worst thing in the world to have someone  swipe through your pics? No, duh, it’s not. But it still baffles me you feel you can just  swipe, swipe,swipe through all my pictures of food, puppies, selfies, etc. as if it’s not a violation of privacy–even if you’re just doing it reflexively.

It is not proper etiquette to assume that I want you to look at my other pictures. Simply asking would be a more respectful way to go about this. Yea, I know you’re not the NSA so I get that you’re not trying to ‘snoop’, but the presumptuousness is what I find to be more annoying.

Everyone is curious about what lurks in our respective phone photo albums (especially since that’s how most of us snap pics these days). I think that is the appeal of Instagram and Facebook–to see other people’s experiences. It’s in our curious human nature, in our natural desire to connect. There is an appeal of having the same social media pages, same phone and seeing how your phone’s photo album is different from someone else’s. It’s almost like getting a glimpse into someone’s mind to go through their photos, see what they’ve seen, and experience for a brief moment what they have. To view the photos that didn’t make it to public viewing.

So if you picked (b.), next time Betty shows you ONE picture on your phone, simply ask: “That’s amazing, any more pictures of the beach on here?” And let Betty decide whether you get more pics or not.

Because if I’m Betty and I see you swiping at my pics without asking, I WILL BE JUDGING YOU. Yea, you automatically become a ‘Serial Swiper’, sub-division: ‘Only show them pictures while death-gripping phone.’