The Mystery of the Missing Display Profile.
An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service — Daniel J. Boorstin
Sneha was vivacious when she hurled the question, ‘Ma’am did you see my latest Display Profile’? I strained through my glasses to see Sneha’s Display Profile but found a blank screen looking back in askance. I rubbed my eyes and looked back again but found a circle like a moon. I wrote back to her saying that I could see nothing. She asked me to look deeper and see it. Well, Sneha is a pretty young girl and could be marked off into my imaginary daughter’s age. In fact, Vithi and Sneha are my two young friends who have been game changers in my life. The photo shoots with these two young colleagues were very special. It often reminded me of my father who took utmost care in clicking each photograph. Those were the days when a photo film roll meant for 36 photos captured the best moments over a period of two to three months, at times it was made to last a year as developing the hard copies was expensive. No one wasted a single photograph due to carelessness. He would stand in the hot sun adjust the beam of Sun Rays falling on us and then move forward, backward and diagonally but ultimately gave one the best picture of their lifetime.
Sneha and Vithi had iPhone with them and so there was literally no shortage in clicking any number of photographs. Vithi was better at photography and Sneha was the pretty angel who wanted to be photographed rather than photograph people. The difficulty here was that the girls would pose randomly giving stylish postures depicting sophistication in their personas while I stood awkwardly in my duck feet posture. Vithi would stop photographing with a sigh on her face, and Sneha would bring a temporary frown on her face saying, ‘How long’? Vithi would look at us calmly trying to curb her annoyance and say, ‘You both do not match, one extremely classy and fashionable while the other seems outdated. Then they would teach me to tilt a little, move my foot as if it were dangling and then a session of photography would follow. The photo shoot was exhaustive and many a time out of habit my foot would go back to normalcy to the duck feet position.
A profile was a special term during the eighties and was never for display. During the nineties and the millennial years, there came a surge in technology and the term changed to Display Profile on WhatsApp. It turned into a profile on Facebook, Instagram, Google, Twitter, Gmail and many others. Every domain has a slot for a profile picture and a few interesting lines to be written. In Windows, the environment was created through one’s user profile which would display the settings and network connections and the roaming profiles. The network makes one extremely social and busy losing out at least three to four hours of productive time. Initially, it is lethargy and then it turns into an addiction. It is important to update your profile photo and it shows your collective and individual perspectives in the changing era of technology.
WhatsApp has a series of engagements like the Display Profile with a status line and then a status where one can choose to share their thoughts. Very few are imaginative in their writing but the pictures and inspirational quotes in the form of images have become a major share of the creativity. Sneha has moved to one of the most beautiful places in China and her photographs have been a joy for the teachers and our young students. Earlier, the photographs were changed once a week when we worked together but these days the punctuality varies as per her moods. Vithi is younger and sober torn between career and social goings. Her pictures mostly display her social life and it is always with her friends and family. Vithi doesn’t have a specific schedule of changing her Display Profile but both the girls were an epitome of punctuality when it came to planning or carrying out work professionally.
Sneha was annoyed the next morning when I told her I could still not see her Display Profile. It was one of her best she said. I asked her weakly, ‘Can Vithi see your profile’?. She exclaimed, ‘Ma’am, Vithi congratulated me on the excellence and combined effects of the photograph’! Now there was greater inquisitiveness in me to see Sneha’s Display Profile. I quickly asked the technology specialists in the college in all seriousness, ‘When is a Display Profile invisible?’ Each one gave me a list of options saying things like I may not be in the contact list or I may have been cut off from the list of enthusiastic people who cannot view one’s Display Profile. Well, I felt sad, not because I could not view Sneha’s Display Profile but it meant that I was incompetent on Social Media. I certainly needed to be more active, share more pictures and definitely needed to comment more. Most essentially, I needed to use idiomatic expressions and laud people expressively. Well, it was difficult but this was a test to gain my acceptability. Sneha kept asking me about her Display Profile, I started saying naturally, ‘Not visible Sneha’, she would convince me saying, ‘Ma’am, you are my friend and very much in my contact list’. I felt like telling her in disbelief, ‘Why don’t you ask Siri, Sneha, yours is an iPhone and this assistant could answer’, but kept quiet as sometimes I have known Siri to let one down with its monotonous chatter like, ‘Am unable to help you here’.
The last week I felt I would start a weekly detox of Display Profile and Status but the morning message of Sneha caught my attention. The Display Profile was the best one with Sneha in pale blue trousers and a black shirt, her wavy hair adding beauty to her fair countenance. I replied saying,’ a beautiful Display Profile’ Sneha. We wondered each day but to this day Sneha and I do not know the mystery of the missing Display Profile.
