Twitter is responsible for so many false rumors, terrible hashtag games, and unfortunate Geraldo Rivera selfies that it can be difficult to remember that it can also be used for good instead of evil. One user recently reaffirmed our collective belief that it’s possible for this technology to bring out the best in us.
Back in July, Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch tweeted out a simple question: “How many of you have a photograph of the single best moment of your life?” Somehow this question cut through the thick sludge of irony and dumb jokes that makes up Twitter’s surface layer and yielded some honest, poignant responses–with photographic evidence!
Over the next few days on Twitter, responses continued to pour in, with Deitsch’s followers briefly describing what they considered to be the best moment of their lives, accompanied by pictures. There are almost as many sports moments as there are childbirths, but the big throughline appears to be family and friendship–little girls making their grandmother smile in her final days, say, or the lifelong friends celebrating their 50th birthday together. It’s kind of sappy, but then again, so is humanity altogether, and you have to admire the way one man was able to crowdsource a thorough cross section of it.
Look through some of the best of the best in the slides below.