I’ve broken the internet!
A couple of days back I posted this photo from a few years back in to a Facebook group. I quite like the photo. It’s a decent street picture; a bit humourous, even a little controversial in some quarters. It isn’t by any stretch of the imagination one of my best, certainly not a classic. It has, however, accrued 17,000 likes and 2,000 shares and he numbers are still rising.
Whilst I’m pleased that people take the time to acknowledge the photo and ‘like’ it in some way (even though it does make some grown men act like 13-year-olds), it doesn’t really merit the attention.
Therein, I think lies one of the problems with social media as a platform. I’ve posted many ‘better’ photos (and so have countless other people) that have sunk without trace, and yet this has done far ‘better’ than anything I’ve ever posted. The success of something doesn’t seem to correlate to its merits. A combination of some obscure Facebook algorithms and a herd mentality that makes people want to be part of something seems to be the driving force.
As I say, I’m happy that people get something out of the photos. There’s no reason to post otherwise. But this picture has highlighted, I think, the artifice of social media. Success (in a very loose sense) seems to be totally arbitrary.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to ‘like’ the picture and if you could all send me £1 as well, I’d appreciate it even more 🙂
The picture ended up at 67,000 ‘likes’ before they removed it from facebook because someone reported it!
