My experience with Instagram was brief: like a summer fling, only without the benefits. Meh, it was fun, for about four days, then I tired of liking photos and looking at a stream and being liked and all that jazz. But what really put me over the edge and made me delete my iPhone app was endless amounts of these:
Yes, sushi. Someone else’s sushi, to be specific. Sushi you can’t eat yourself. Instagram seems like the home for the wannabe Oriental takeout menu creator. Pictures upon pictures of sushi, all run through countless filters that make the iPhone’s fabulous camera* seem like a Viewmaster. And more than once, I was Rickrolled on Twitter into clicking a link from a friend that said something innocuous, like “guys, you gotta see this shot”. And boom, it’s their spicy tuna roll from the night before. Yum…
* What the hell is it about Instagram users that just won’t let them post a freakin’ 8 megapixel photo without making it look like crap? Here – which one would I rather hold onto for a while?
I’ll stick with the one on the left. You know, the 3200 pixel wide one I could probably get made into a decent 16 x 20 print and hang on a wall, not the one that looks like someone printed it on an Epson C80 in 1997 and stuck it in the spokes of their Huffy.
But now that Instagram’s new privacy policy has been pored over, and it states quite unequivocally that they are allowed to sell user’s photos, or use them for advertising without compensation or attribution, I’m gone.
Wil Wheaton made a great point in that article link above: “If someone Instagrams a photo of Seth Green walking through an Urban Outfitters, does that mean Urban Outfitters can take that image and use it to create an implied endorsement by Seth?”
I’m not under the false impression that things posted online are “private”. If you do think that, well, welcome to the Internet, boys and girls. However, I’m not leaving my photos, as few there were, up for some company to use without my permission for advertising or promotions. Most of my photos I use for MY advertising and promotions, and I spent a lot of time taking them. Including the one above of the Hard Rock Cancun (not bad for balancing an iPhone in one hand, mojito in the other, eh?)
No thanks. I’ve deleted my Instagram account. Oh, and you sushi posters? I’ve added a filter to my Tweetdeck that blocks any Instagram post from my feed. So don’t ask me to check out your sashimi with wasabi nuts.
