An impression used to be an idea, feeling or opinion on a piece of art. I like this kind of impression. It requires thinking and discussion; a point-of-view.

But, these days, an impression means something entirely different. An impression is a person who happened to scroll past your photograph or video or thought and lingered for a half-second (if that).

Social media platforms place this number front and center as a means of valuing your work. This is backwards, though. If a man drops trout in the middle of a sidewalk and takes a shit, dozens if not hundreds of people would stop and stare. His maneuver would garner a lot of impressions. Many more than the man on the corner playing his heart out on his nylon guitar. But, which is more valuable? 

In an age that has high-jacked the word impression and made it something shallow, shiny and new, it's worth asking ourselves how we will choose to value our work. For me, it's no longer about how many but who. If my work can leave an impression (the original definition of an impression) on just one person who cares enough to really think, consider and form a point-of-view around what I've created, then that's worth 100,000 of the other kind.