Remember that substitute teacher who brought in photos of his trip abroad to show the class? It was supposed to be world-expanding and provide just enough charming back story to begin a bit of bonding with the students, but everyone knew it was really just to kill time rather than stumble through the lesson plan. Didn’t matter if it was math class, history or Am Lit; there was the slide carousel, the monotonic narration and the faulty assumption that any of it was interesting.

It doesn’t matter which school you went to; that sub is at every school.

Maybe it’s no wonder that so many of us have grown up to be just like that sub.

Instead of slides, we have social media, but it’s basically the same.

Granted, some people go on amazing vacations. But most of us end up in the same places posing in front of the same landmarks. Our pictures all look the same. All our descriptions struggle for grandeur and relevance.

Maybe that’s the point: showing our social media followers that we are just as cool, just as adventurous, just as able to afford plane fare.

Showing that we can. Showing that we, in fact, did.

In the modern world we spend so much time showing. Sometimes it’s showing off, but often it’s showing the mundane or, worse, showing our messy humanity.

There was a time when people took their kid to the doctor without taking and sharing pictures of the child making brave face/sad face while sitting on the white-papered table.

There was a time when trips to the emergency room were not documented by gory photos that were then flashed in front of the eyes of friends and family without warning.

There was a time when people had surgery without commemorating the ordeal with before-and-after (and after, and the next day after that, and oh, I’m eating solid food now …) photos.

There was a time when taking a picture of yourself in the bathroom mirror wouldn’t cross anyone’s mind, when we didn’t think anyone would want to look at photos of what we ate for dinner. We used to sit though traffic jams without taking pictures of the line of cars in front of our windshield.

We waited through delays at the airport without telling everyone we know of our inconvenience. We cut our hair, went to the grocery store, fought for parking, bought new shoes, all without telling the world about it. We found identity and relevance elsewhere.

Not to be judgmental. You want to post videos from the privacy of your bathroom, whatever. Let your social media contacts deal with it.

Just think back to sixth period right after lunch, when your eyelids were already heavy and your head was already filled from morning lectures and you walked into the class and oh, no, there’s a sub and there are those slides and aw, man, the sub’s face is all hopeful. Maybe we don’t always want to be like that.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.