Social Media Woes
Earlier today I had the perfect idea to blog about. It was something both interesting and profound and would have changed your world view - or at least helped you align with mine - but when I finally sat down to write ... nothing.
And so, here we are. Me, with nothing really important to write about and you wondering why you're reading this in the first place.
So, let's see ...
I started talking with a co-worker recently whom I had very little interaction with in the past. He had worn a "Hail Satan" shirt to work and one day I commented on it in a positive manner. He admitted he only wore it to upset the christians, but he was assured by the HR department that as long as they're allowed to weird their crosses and pro-christianity apparel, he can wear the apparel of his religion.
He's actually quit intelligent, having a master's degree in religious studies. He knows far more about Abrahamic religions than I do and I know my fair share. He also teaches knife fighting techniques and wrote a book on nutrition.
Cool.
Last weekend I drove up to Boulder, CO for their Tulips and Fairies Festival. I don't know if there were any tulips, but the fairies were few and far in-between.
While there I stepped into a photography gallery where the gallery owner and photographer sat at a desk. We talked about a few things and I gave him an idea that might save him some money or, at the very least, take some time off his day.
He never said "thank you."
That my idea would have saved him a thousand dollars per unit or countless hours of time didn't seem to matter to him once he discovered it was 40 miles away.
I don't know about you, but I would drive 40 miles to save a thousand dollars.
Oh! I just remembered what I was going to write about!
Basically, I wanted to ran about people in photography communities on social media.
As we all know, Google shut down the Plus on the second of April this year. It sent millions of us across the internet to find new homes where we could create and share content for others. It's one of the reasons I've been blogging more as I'm using this space in a manner wherein I would have just posted there.
One of the places I've set down semi-permanent roots is called MeWe. Unlike Facebook, Google, Twitter or countless other social sites, MeWe's built on a foundation of privacy first. And while this is a greatly needed part of social media sites, being privacy first also means there aren't certain features some of us have come to expect.
Regardless, on MeWe I joined a photography group based on themes of the day. A veteran Google+er created the groups in an effort to clone his groups over on the Plus. Basically, he provides a theme and everyone else has to load a photo matching that theme.
Here's the problem - so many people are treating this group less like a place to challenge themselves to produce and/or share photography that meets the theme but are instead treating it more like a scavenger hunt.
Let me explain: the group is owned and managed by a photographer. The intent of his group was for photographers to share their content, or go out and create content, based on themes. Sometimes the themes are simple (something blue or eyes) and people are supposed to post a photo with something blue or where the subject of the photo is eyes. The problem is, people aren't posting their own photos. They're scouring the internet and finding someone else's content to share as their own.
And when you call them out for their behavior they become aggressively defensive. For example, I have been known to ask a "photographer" what technique they used to edit their photo only to met with aggressiveness. Or, I might ask a photographer when they were in a particular location only to experience the same defensiveness.
And the group's owner? He's more about keeping the peace than enforcing the rules. Which is, in itself, quite annoying.
So, non-photographers are posting content that belongs to real photographers, aren't attributing that content to the original content creators, and some aren't even posting photos, but rather digital art or memes.
Just yesterday I told someone with an obvious fake name (Blissfully Pissgnorant, or something like that) that his image of two eagle's heads, one with the Stars and Stripes superimposed and the other with the Israeli flag, wasn't meeting the bare minimum of a "photograph" for the group. He then accused me of being anti-American and anti-Semitic, tried to diffuse my critique by saying other people aren't uploading their own content and pretty much used every ineffective argument known to a three year old.
And all I kept thinking was: I need to quit this group.
There really is no point in being here. The photos from most contributors are lackluster at best. Yes, they belong the poster, but they're poor cell phone photographs, not good photos. And then there are the countless images that don't belong to the poster or that aren't actually photographs. The lack of group management isn't helping either.
This behavior isn't only in this group, but runs rampant across social media sites. People sharing content that's not their own, not giving attribution and not following the rules.
When I owned/managed a Google+ Community I was recognized by Google's community advocates for my community's rules, the people in the community loved the rules because I enforced them. That meant no non -related content. It was that simple.
Imagine if you go to a community event in real life and half the people there would rather take your time and resources to not participate in the event. For a moment imagine you're at a theme party, Let's say the theme is pirates (because I've been to a pirate themed party before) and someone shows up and wants to evangelize their political viewpoint. No one wants to listen but they keep interrupting other conversations in order to push their point.
Yes, it's like that and no one appreciates that behavior. And yet, as people spend so much time trying not to offend they allow these people to fester and ruin the good time for everyone.
Anywho, I just thought I'd complain for a moment. Now the sun's beating down on me pretty harshly and I want to move, so this is what you get.
And so, here we are. Me, with nothing really important to write about and you wondering why you're reading this in the first place.
So, let's see ...
I started talking with a co-worker recently whom I had very little interaction with in the past. He had worn a "Hail Satan" shirt to work and one day I commented on it in a positive manner. He admitted he only wore it to upset the christians, but he was assured by the HR department that as long as they're allowed to weird their crosses and pro-christianity apparel, he can wear the apparel of his religion.
He's actually quit intelligent, having a master's degree in religious studies. He knows far more about Abrahamic religions than I do and I know my fair share. He also teaches knife fighting techniques and wrote a book on nutrition.
Cool.
Last weekend I drove up to Boulder, CO for their Tulips and Fairies Festival. I don't know if there were any tulips, but the fairies were few and far in-between.
While there I stepped into a photography gallery where the gallery owner and photographer sat at a desk. We talked about a few things and I gave him an idea that might save him some money or, at the very least, take some time off his day.
He never said "thank you."
That my idea would have saved him a thousand dollars per unit or countless hours of time didn't seem to matter to him once he discovered it was 40 miles away.
I don't know about you, but I would drive 40 miles to save a thousand dollars.
Oh! I just remembered what I was going to write about!
Basically, I wanted to ran about people in photography communities on social media.
As we all know, Google shut down the Plus on the second of April this year. It sent millions of us across the internet to find new homes where we could create and share content for others. It's one of the reasons I've been blogging more as I'm using this space in a manner wherein I would have just posted there.
One of the places I've set down semi-permanent roots is called MeWe. Unlike Facebook, Google, Twitter or countless other social sites, MeWe's built on a foundation of privacy first. And while this is a greatly needed part of social media sites, being privacy first also means there aren't certain features some of us have come to expect.
Regardless, on MeWe I joined a photography group based on themes of the day. A veteran Google+er created the groups in an effort to clone his groups over on the Plus. Basically, he provides a theme and everyone else has to load a photo matching that theme.
Here's the problem - so many people are treating this group less like a place to challenge themselves to produce and/or share photography that meets the theme but are instead treating it more like a scavenger hunt.
Let me explain: the group is owned and managed by a photographer. The intent of his group was for photographers to share their content, or go out and create content, based on themes. Sometimes the themes are simple (something blue or eyes) and people are supposed to post a photo with something blue or where the subject of the photo is eyes. The problem is, people aren't posting their own photos. They're scouring the internet and finding someone else's content to share as their own.
And when you call them out for their behavior they become aggressively defensive. For example, I have been known to ask a "photographer" what technique they used to edit their photo only to met with aggressiveness. Or, I might ask a photographer when they were in a particular location only to experience the same defensiveness.
And the group's owner? He's more about keeping the peace than enforcing the rules. Which is, in itself, quite annoying.
So, non-photographers are posting content that belongs to real photographers, aren't attributing that content to the original content creators, and some aren't even posting photos, but rather digital art or memes.
Just yesterday I told someone with an obvious fake name (Blissfully Pissgnorant, or something like that) that his image of two eagle's heads, one with the Stars and Stripes superimposed and the other with the Israeli flag, wasn't meeting the bare minimum of a "photograph" for the group. He then accused me of being anti-American and anti-Semitic, tried to diffuse my critique by saying other people aren't uploading their own content and pretty much used every ineffective argument known to a three year old.
And all I kept thinking was: I need to quit this group.
There really is no point in being here. The photos from most contributors are lackluster at best. Yes, they belong the poster, but they're poor cell phone photographs, not good photos. And then there are the countless images that don't belong to the poster or that aren't actually photographs. The lack of group management isn't helping either.
This behavior isn't only in this group, but runs rampant across social media sites. People sharing content that's not their own, not giving attribution and not following the rules.
When I owned/managed a Google+ Community I was recognized by Google's community advocates for my community's rules, the people in the community loved the rules because I enforced them. That meant no non -related content. It was that simple.
Imagine if you go to a community event in real life and half the people there would rather take your time and resources to not participate in the event. For a moment imagine you're at a theme party, Let's say the theme is pirates (because I've been to a pirate themed party before) and someone shows up and wants to evangelize their political viewpoint. No one wants to listen but they keep interrupting other conversations in order to push their point.
Yes, it's like that and no one appreciates that behavior. And yet, as people spend so much time trying not to offend they allow these people to fester and ruin the good time for everyone.
Anywho, I just thought I'd complain for a moment. Now the sun's beating down on me pretty harshly and I want to move, so this is what you get.
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