Did you have a moment of wonder or even worry this past week when Facebook and Instagram had the glitch and were not showing or posting photos? I know I was confused but I was not worried since I have the peace of mind about my photos being safe with Forever and always being in at least 2 place that I can get my hands on them should one not be accessible.
The glitch that Facebook and Instagram experienced this week did remind me on a couple of things. See if any of these resonate with you:
- Until it is broken, I forget how often I use social media to fill moments in my day. Whether it is while I wait in line, when I am board, when I am curious about something, or even when someone come to mind.
- When “the glitch” happened this week, I was intrigued by how all of the photos were replaced with white boxes with text in them. I know about data mining but it was a good reminder about how that works and how this is typically done through computer scanning our photos and categorizing them. It takes a far more detailed look that even I realized and flags my photos with tags that I don’t have a way to see or edit behind the scenes.
- I am glad that I don’t rely on only a cloud based photo solutions – I know a few of you will pause in your tracts and say but I thought she sells cloud based photo storage. I do and believe it in but I also sell and use (and have used for over 12 years) a software program on my computer that helps me organize my images. I have always been a big believer and supporter of having your photos in a second location with another form of back up.
- I felt so disconnected on Wednesday – we have become such social creatures who rely on our “social media” connections, our updates, our checking on others and our rush of seeing how others interacted with our own posts.
My final thoughts as we returned to normal routines was that I appreciate the benefits of “data mining” technology when I go to search something with Google or need to pull up something on my phone or computer and it remembers things I have done previously. I also love sharing and connecting through social media with friend and family I don’t see as often and don’t plan on stopping this anytime soon however I also like knowing that I have choices about a safe and secure site to store my photos and videos that values our photos rights and does not data mine for any reason. I can choose to pick the few photos I want to share on social media and then keep the the majority of my photos in this site and share in other ways.
As always, if you are looking for help with a plan on how to get your photos in one place – safe and secure I am happy to set up a time to chat further. Our next Monthly Workshop is also a great time to pop in and learn more. Be sure to check out our Events Tab to see when the next available workshop is to join.