I have a photographer friend who is constantly being flagged on Instagram for posting photos that violate Instagram’s terms of use. Reason: he mostly takes nude photos.
Now, philosophical and legal arguments can get lengthy and complicated quickly. Sure, he has freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but in the end, you give them up when you agree to use a particular platform. This often makes me wonder why he doesn’t move to a more comprehensive (or perhaps more inclusive) platform that includes the types of images he creates.
The way I tell this story makes it seem like an example of isolation between a photographer and Instagram. But that’s not quite the case. I know hundreds of photographers and can tell this story dozens of times.
This strict censorship is also present on other Meta platforms, including Facebook. Add to that a ton of ads and it creates a social media experience that we all engage with, but don’t quite love.
Over the past few months, Twitter seems to be a very viable alternative to sharing photos. However, for anyone who has been using Twitter lately, Twitter is in complete chaos since you-know-who-purchased it.
Sure, I could list dozens of other apps, but for the social aspect of social networking to work, a community needs to be in place. No one wants to talk to the wind. Also, for the photography social media app to work, navigating to share images needs to be simple and at the forefront of the app.
Tumblr solves the problems of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
Tumblr recently announced that it will now allow “…a broader range of expression, creativity, and art on Tumblr, including content depicting the human form (yes, including shapes) naked human)”. What they won’t allow is “nudity, adult themes or sexual themes”.
But hear me out, maybe Tumblr is the next big, happy platform for all of us? Most of us who grew up on the internet probably already have communities there. For the most part, the platform is intuitive and ad-free. And almost equally importantly, navigation for sharing images is not only very streamlined, but in fact, the platform itself has led the way in image-based media.
The problem with any platform is that it can change according to the will of the people who run it. In fact, as proven, it has happened many times. Lately, I’ve been lurking around on Tumblr a bit myself, but it’s an option for those looking for something else. It may be a little early to give a more specific opinion, but will this choice be the same as getting back with an ex we broke up with or will it make all our memories and reasoning go away? Why do we go back and forth so quickly? first place?
I really do not know. However, sometimes, people change and it’s often worth giving them a second chance to see how they’ve grown.
