JUST SAYING A year of living differently prompts Chris Leadbeater to reflect on the #lastnormalphoto phenomenon – and look forward to photos to come

If the current crisis has been good for one thing, it is the health of the hashtag. It has had a successful pandemic, this little symbol, as so much of our existence has shifted online.

From #covidiot to #sheeple, these four crossed lines have been lighting up social media, helping to ensure the world doesn’t run out of selfies, confected rows and opinionated bile, just when it needs it most.

But there has been one particular hashtag which has struck a chord with me. It did so this time last year – #lastnormalphoto. It was a simple but evocative idea. You posted the final image on your phone of your daily life before the planet really started to fold in on itself.

It trended in April and May, and was sweetly effective, capturing not just the “before times” in random mundanity – but a wider sense of bafflement at what had just happened.

I mention this because, yesterday, my phone revived the topic. It did so in that brusque, unrequested manner, pinging me a “memory” of what was indeed my #lastnormalphoto – a shot of Plaza Las Delicias in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was taken on March 11 2020, and it was a jolt to see it – kind of like an unexpected text from an ex-girlfriend.

The stymieing of travel has been one of the more peripheral concerns in an era of death and despair, but looking at this distant moment: the Caribbean sun sparkling on a fountain, I felt a sudden pang of loss. I guess we all will in the coming days, in our own way, as we pass the first anniversary of everything stopping, and our memories pluck up relevant milestones.

Of course, my phone is going to have to work harder to unbalance me as we move into spring. From here on, the pickings in its archive become much

You posted the final image on your phone before the planet folded in on itself

slimmer. Ping! Memory – that queue for the supermarket. Ping! Memory – that walk on the same bit of towpath. Ping! Memory – the back garden again.

It really is time we all made some new memories.

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