There's a Very Bad Tweet going around about emojis, which won't be shared. It's the exact same gripe you always hear about how GROWN MEN use their phones, right down to the appeal to earlier, tougher generations.

So let's talk about how our ancestors actually used technology.

(Quick housekeeping note: I'm turning off replies for the thread because otherwise it'll be "OH BOY HERE COMES THE PUN" over and over and this is not a pun story.

Yes, I have completely earned that reputation. This is my fault.

This tweet will self-destruct when I am done.)

You might know that the daguerreotype is the first publicly available type of photography. Lots of famous people sat in studios for these portraits, which were wildly expensive and developed on metal. But hey, it was photography, if you could afford it.

A couple decades later, the albumen print was invented in France, and popularized in the 1860s, especially stateside. This print — including the "calling card," or Carte de Visite (CdV) — was the first photograph to be printed on paper, effectively democratizing photography.

As mentioned, the CdV got especially popular here around the 1860s, when *as you might have heard*, there was a little unpleasantness out east.

But these Civil War soldiers had cameras. And what did they use them for? These great ancestors of ours took selfies.

Lots of selfies.

(These are courtesy of the New York Heritage Museum's collection of over *2,500* cartes de visite, almost all from soldiers from New York alone. When I say lots of selfies I mean a LOT.)

https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/nysmm/search/searchterm/Civil%20War%20Carte%20de%20Visite%20Collection/field/relatig/mode/exact/conn/and/order/date

A democratized medium in a democratizing society meant visibility for some people for the very first time. Sojourner Truth sold cartes de visite to fund her speaking tours. https://picturinghistory.gc.cuny.edu/portrait-of-sojourner-truth-1864/

The other side, naturally, found plenty of use for the easily reproduced medium as well.

There was even — hand to god — what might be the world's first cat meme.

All of which is to say: our ancestors, in the middle of the Civil War, got their hands on easily available photography for the first time in human history, and turned it into Instagram* almost immediately.

*well, almost, as tummy tea affiliate programs had yet to be invented.

We are human beings.

We have always wanted to be seen. We have always wanted to be remembered. We have always wanted to look important. We have always wanted to show people the good dogs. https://historical.ha.com/itm/photography/cdvs/union-canine-little-corporal-carte-de-visite/a/6131-47344.s

Any time someone chases cheap clout by telling you any of that makes you shallow, soft (name your insult, there's dozens), what they're really admitting is that they're joyless dorks, and those people don't deserve your respect or attention.

Selfie away. Live life.

That's all.