Blog Post #58

Who decides what you get to see on-line ?

Like many photographers these days I spend a fair bit of time on-line looking at other people’s work and watching YouTube tutorials. I don’t subscribe to Tic-Tock or Instagram or any other such sites and prefer to visit websites and watch video tutorials and reviews of my choosing and from what I consider to be reputable sources. This week I watched an interesting video on YouTube by Alex Kilbee via his channel “The Photographic Eye”. In the video, Alex discusses how the mechanics of internet decides what you get to see based on algorithms that are constructed based on the actions you take whilst viewing pages on the internet. The power of cookies buried in your browser is well known, but every time you load a page, look at content, comment on, “Like”, and click on links etc., this all helps to construct and modify the algorithm that monitors your preferences, and not always in a good way. With the increased use of A.I this will no doubt get even more sophisticated.

Many people complain about the types and standards of street photography on the internet, and although the might be right, their opinion will probably be based on what YouTube and other apps (Instagram, Facebook etc.), has decided what it is they should be looking at. If you go on to Instagram for example and start firing off “likes” to photographers just because either you know them, they always “Like” your work or because they are building a big following and you want to be one of them, then you will be forever linked to everything they do (and similar to that of similar people), unless you take action.

Most apps have a feature somewhere that enables you to modify the algorithm yourself, but they are not always obvious. In YouTube for example, in your home page there will be a lot of videos that YouTube thinks will be of interest to you. You may be puzzled as to why some of these videos are being directed at you, so if that’s the case do this. On the homepage, hover over the video title and three dots will appear. Click on these and you will be presented with some options for you to choose from. If you are totally uninterested in the video you can tell YouTube and this should tweak your algorithm.

It is not a magic wand though and you may still see uninteresting content because YT or the app you are on have been paid to push it out. Face book has a similar feature and uses the three dots also.

So the message that Alex Kilbee was putting across is an important one. Dont go wild with “Likes”, “Shares” and comments just to be kind or to be seen to be reciprocating the action you get for your work. These actions are not dumb and are monitored closely by the app provider. For example if you are not into bird photography but have a friend that is, if you “Like” everything they post, just because they are your friend, then you will start to get swamped with bird photos because you have told the algorithm you like them. I use the “Like” button very sparingly and only use it if I genuinely like something. I discuss this further in Blog Post #1 if you are interested.

Reaction to Blog Post #57

I thought I would just say a few words on the reaction to my last Blog Post entitled “Taking the shot…or not”. I had a few comments directly on the website, but I also had PMs and comments on Facebook groups I am a member of. The overall tone of the comments ranged from “thought provoking” to being judgemental on my approach to street photography. I would like to thank everyone that did comment as the debate is one that is important. I won’t be changing my approach but it was interesting to hear what others thought on the subject. It was also implied that I had manipulated the shots for effect (i.e. gritty B&W presentation), to get competition points or “Likes”. I never seek out the latter as I don’t belong to a camera club and the only other place the images appear is on my website. It’s also worth noting that most were shot on B&W film. How would the debate change if I was to say the guy with his head in his hands was laughing and that the chap sitting on the ground was not a vagrant. We had met in the shop buying drinks and he decided to have a sit down outside the shop. It was 39C in London that day. Things may not always be as they seem.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and thank you for reading it. If you want to comment on this blog post please do so below or you can contact me by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.

Pete