Tuesday 22 April 2014

Instagram Etiquette

If you follow either of us on Instagram you will more than likely be aware of a really annoying issue we have with the photo-sharing app and I wanted to touch on a few things I think Instagram users should at least be conscious of. 

I wanted to start with taking people's photos without their permission and uploading them as your own. This is why many Instagram users now choose to watermark their photos- something we really shouldn't need or have to do. Recently, more than four accounts have taken both my and Tayla's Instagram photos, created new accounts and uploaded the photos as their own. I understand that some of these accounts have been made in an attempt to flatter us, but we both find it very creepy and annoying. I can't stress this enough, but YOU MUST ASK SOMEONE FOR PERMISSION TO USE THEIR PHOTO! It's really not that difficult to do. If you were to ask, I'm sure the person you are asking would really appreciate you being kind and considerate, and would respond in a similar manor. But if you take and re-upload someone's photo (or artwork for that matter) without their permission, they have every right to get angry and mad at you. You did not ask for permission so naturally the original owner feels offended and probably more creeped out than anything. The people that have taken and re-uploaded our photos started off kind and friendly (keep in mind that they did not ask for permission to take our photos) and when asked to remove of their accounts and/or photos (we asked nicely), they responded angrily and in what I think is an unreasonable manor. It's not that hard to understand that someone wants you to delete their photo. Tayla and I both have private Instagram accounts so it's horrible knowing that someone we let follow us (because they had a seemingly normal looking profile) has uploaded and taken our photos to use on a public account. Obviously, we could delete our accounts (something many people have sarcastically offered up to us as a solution) and as much as I would love to delete my account and start fresh, that means that people who have taken our photos will be able to upload them and re-post them without our knowledge and we would be unable to do anything about it. I just wanted to express my feelings on the subject and I think some people (especially young teenagers it seems) need to understand how serious this issue can be. 

The second thing I wanted to discuss is making inappropriate, rude and cruel comments on people's photos. Now this has not happened to me personally, but has happened to many of the friends I have made on Instagram and it makes me incredibly sad to know that they no longer feel safe uploading photos of themselves on Instagram. Just because you don't like they way someone dresses or how they style their hair, their weight or how they wear their makeup does not mean you can comment nasty, disgusting comments on their photos. Again, this seems to be a problem with younger teenagers- I'm not saying it's just them, but it is a common occurrence on my Instagram feed. If you don't like the way someone looks, just scroll past or unfollow. It's really not that difficult and there is no point in lashing out at the uploaders. You should really consider the lasting affect that rude comments can have on a person. How would you like it if someone commented "lol, your an ugly bitch and look like a drag queen" on one of your photos? It's really not nice now is it. I think we should all listen to good ol' Thumper from Bambi and follow the line "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". 

I will probably expand on this post some time in the future, but I hope those of you that have experienced any of these things agree with me, and that those of you that either bully on Instagram or that take other people's photos, understand just how hurtful it can be. 

Thank you for reading, love Maddie xoxo.

2 comments: