Let it Snow: Pictures of Snowy NYC Threaten to Overtake City Residents

Yes, it’s snowing again in New York City. Should you not be hip to that fact, a quick check of any social media site will quickly inform you of yet another onslaught of winter weather hitting NYC, and just what the inhabitants of our fair city are up to in the snow. Unlike pure news outlets, social media provides a stage for anyone and everyone to share. Share their experiences, share their thoughts, share their feelings (I just choked on my sandwich); share as much as they want, anytime they want, especially in picture form. This winter the experience we’ve all been sharing has been snow and, judging from the endless stream of snowy NYC photos, the city might not survive.

Which is still preferable to sharing our feelings.

When something is happening in New York City, the volume of shared images hits record numbers. But it’s not just when something is actually happening. NYC is a place that inspires tourists and residents alike to photograph to their hearts delight, providing scenery that is historic, architecturally significant and culturally rich, while producing street life that inspires and street art that can’t be ignored. As much in your face as it is silently inspiring, the New York City we all love speaks to us as a group and whispers to us, just us, as we move through our singular experience in the city. Wow, isn’t that what inspired Ridiculous in the City in the first place (wiping tear)?

With all of the technology in our pockets, who wouldn’t be moved to document their experience? A search of “#NYC” on Instagram yields a whopping 32.4 million images (as of March 5, 2015). To put that in context, “#losangeles” has roughly 8.9 million, “#Chicago” 14.7 million, and “#Dallas” 3.9 million (one cannot differentiate between photos of the city and J.R. Ewing images that make up that number, but both deserve their rightful place in #Dallas). Suffice it to say, people are crazy for pictures of New York City. “#Paris” is in NYC’s ballpark with 26.2 million photographs posted—blame it on the romance—but NYC’s numbers still leave it fronting atop the Instagram mountain.

As significant a force as NYC is on Instagram, “#snow” is even greater. With 38.4 million posts tagged “#snow” that makes for a virtual winter wonderland on Instagram. How will we ever dig out? Oh, you ridiculous pun. Incidentally, “#snowpocalypse,” which I was very fond of, has a measly 145,666 posts and the worshiped “#winterblows” a paltry 9,882. Given the huge numbers the subjects of NYC and snow put up, it’s no surprise that the combined power of a snowy New York City has people in a frigid frenzy.

In the past five minutes, roughly half of all Instagram posts for NYC were snow-related images. And from the looks of them, we are doomed. Cars buried, doorways blocked, fountains frozen over; babies wrapped up like jet propulsion packs, ice chunks floating in the East River—not in a fabulous, sexually charged Icelandic tourism ad campaign way, but in a grotesquely cold, buried alive by frozen water in little more than your underwear way. There are photos of trash lodged so far under snow that when spring comes, it will probably have composted itself and be sprouting avocados, or reveal a thawed Walt Disney. I am so ready for Walt to be thawed.

These are not pictures of kids making snow angels or laughing as they walk along a snowy path, these are pictures of a city being assaulted by winter weather. It looks so freaking cold and, I for one, am totally freaked out. Warning: Apocalypse right now. Who wouldn’t be based on these frozen tundra photos? Here I sit in the warm confines of Ridiculous in the City headquarters, god knows what will happen if I leave. If I can even leave. I knew I should have stocked up on Cup-O-Noodles. High sodium is my middle name.

By tomorrow the winter storm (Dear National Weather Service, Can we please put Winter Storm Ridiculous on the name list? Best regards, Ridiculous) and the snowy image frenzy will have passed, leaving people to post softly lit, snow-laced city blocks and pictures of the park with its snow covered trees hanging over walkways just so. We’ll remember the snow fondly, beautifully, remarking on how it dotted the streets like white pillows and say nothing of the sludge and frozen nose hair icicles that plagued our commute.

And then we’ll all go back to being our normal rate of obsessed with images of NYC.

But today, for one more glorious afternoon, we are living the onslaught of snow and pictures of snow, and pictures of people taking pictures of snow. Part of the problem not part of the solution, I continue ogling pictures of a snowy New York City and waiting for the next post.