So How Evil Is FB?

It’s worse than you might think!

We’re talking specifically FaceBook photography sites. These are the free sites that individuals setup and then as they are the “administrators” they then rule hopefully with a benevolent hand.

But as these self-appointed administrators set the rules, they also dictate the ethics and morales and general deportment of their subjects…err site members.

Case in point is a rather good street photography site that focuses on the city of Toronto. One of many in Toronto it’s what’s called a private group but it’s got 10,000 members so I find it hard to consider it private.

Like most groups on FB you have to agree to certain conditions like good decorum and no advertising and no picking fights. Okay yes I have been suspended from some groups but that’s just me LOL.

Back to our Toronto photography group which is administered very well by a couple of good local photographers who try really really hard to be fair and open. So this is NO criticism of them or their decisions. After all it’s their group and not mine (and yes I do co-facilitate another FB group).

Recently a photographer posted images of two people in front of a Tim Horton’s restaurant obviously suffering from drug withdrawal or severe alcoholic consumption.

As you may imagine the comments from the members were fast and furious.

I on the other hand defended the images (which I’m not particular fond of and the one we saw wasn’t all that good). I believe the unsolicited criticism from random strangers on FaceBook are both unwanted, often conflicting and tend to be just dead wrong.

Then the comments started to be directed at me. Basically it came down to people projecting their own feelings and horror on our poor photographer and toward me.

I was not particular concerned or hurt but I did point out the projection part (for more on this see Ruiz’s The Four Agreements as it can change your life) and offered that two drug addicts or alcoholics didn’t warrant any respect. They made their choices and passed out on our sidewalk and the photographer was under no obligation to offer respect and he shot the image that offended so many.

I had no issue whether or not the two could be identified.

One of the admins said they would have deleted the image if the subjects could be identified. Of course this made no real sense as even if we could see the faces it’s unlikely any of us knew these two and these images, while upsetting, would have been of no surprise to their friends and families.

It’s so easy to get self-righteous and indignant when you don’t think these things through. This is an issue when it comes to amateur administrators. Being an administrator of a group of 10,000 isn’t as easy as it looks. You can’t just hope that everyone is going to be okay with you making moral and artistic decisions for them. It’s just not going to happen.

A basic understanding of ethics and group dynamics would be helpful but both require years of study and practice and aren’t found much on FaceBook.

But banning members and deleting images is the only real power they have and the exercise of it makes them less than they could be and no doubt less than what they might want for themselves. It’s a tough gig.

I felt sorry for one young woman who started off by saying that she had lost a best friend to drugs and nobody had checked on her lying in the street and she died and I wasn’t being very compassionate.

I said I was sorry for her loss but I wasn’t going to buy her trying to guilt me. I’ve spent a lot of years in the basements of churches listening to people tell way worse stories (the one about the axe stays with me decades later) about addiction (and occasionally recovery) and there is no respect warranted nor given by me. I’ve seen more than a few deaths from addiction from people who sat with me in the same rooms.

Compassion yes but nothing more as just about everything else ends up enabling. Alcoholics and drug addicts don’t take into consideration your feelings when they overdose or die of alcoholism. They don’t care about you, your possessions (they’ll steal everything), your sensibilities or your emotions. I could go on but it’s not worth the time.

Anyway that’s the evil of Facebook groups. Run and ruled by self-appointed admins whose standard answer is if you don’t like our group (and our rules) go start your own group. How sad a dictate.

I mean I get it. There has to be some rules and some governing but FaceBook groups are way too totalitarian and arbitrary for my liking in general.

One saving grace is at least I have not been kicked off this group….yet LOL.

So do you want to be a better photographer?

If so, get off Facebook. Join a photo walking group and get out there and photograph what you see. Be brave. I’m heading out tomorrow (Saturday) to do a photo walk in Hamilton with a group and on Sunday I am considering doing a solo in Toronto for the day.

Street photography is hard. I don’t like snipping at unaware subjects and while I’m good at walking up to folks and asking them to pose it’s not street photography IMHO but portraiture. I’m still finding my way.

And if you have to, do what I did and start you own. I don’t do poverty porn but I don’t object to it either. It up to you and it’s your own gallery and invite friends to view it and turn off the comments. What some random stranger says about your art on FaceBook isn’t worth hearing.