A Simple Annoyance

There are so many important things to be concerned about, but right this moment I am feeling an annoyance so simple it's almost comforting:

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a person ask online for an ID of a plant — usually in a plant/gardening interest group — based on a photo. This is a common occurrence in these types of groups. And almost as common is for someone to reply: "You should download a plant ID app."

That's my annoyance.

The person who posted did not ask for advice on the best plant ID app (though sometimes people do ask for that, which is fine). They asked a particular question to a large group of knowledgeable gardeners for a voluntary answer. And they almost always get it because the gardeners know the answer, usually better than the plant apps.

The example that just set me to writing this was not in a gardening group, but on Twitter. The asker posted a couple of photos of a houseplant for which she'd lost the tag and wanted to know what it was so she wouldn't over- or underwater it. The asker has over 21,000 followers on Twitter, so it's likely there are some folks who know what the plant is. Yet the first answer was a person suggesting she download an app.

It's almost delicious how simple this annoyance is. I'm going to revel in it for a while.