Photographic Psychology: Online Photo Sharing Communities

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No doubt there are many advantages to in-person photography groups, but let’s face it: the Internet has opened a whole new world for sharing and discussing photography. In many respects cyberspace is the perfect media for images. In fact, it was the evolution of the Internet from text-only communication to text PLUS images that catapulted it from a place inhabited mostly by academics and techy people to a world that encompasses the whole world.

 

The current success of one photo-sharing community in particular has proven that photographers from many countries, with all sorts of backgrounds, with all skill levels, love communicating via images. Let’s see, what’s the name of that community?…. Oh yeah, FLICKR.

 

Why do people love such photo sharing communities? Although there’s always a technical learning curve when entering a new online environment, the software infrastructure, when well designed, makes it easy to upload, label, organize, comment on, and search for images. Good technical design also includes many of the features that make any online community successful: the ability for group discussion as well as private communication, profile pages for presenting your background information and establishing your online identity, interesting places for people to gather, social networking features, and, most importantly, your own personal “space” within the community that you can shape to reflect your personality and interests.

 

People also love these communities because of the PEOPLE. Research in the new field known as psychology of cyberspace or “cyberpsychology” clearly shows that online relationships and groups can be very meaningful additions to a person’s life. I first discovered this years ago when I was a member of the Palace avatar community. This research taught me that an online lifestyle, in some ways, is very similar to your in-person lifestyle - and in some ways it is very different, especially in communities that emphasize images. Cyberpsychology has uncovered some fascinating questions that inhabitants of Flickr encounter every day:

 

- What do people’s photos and images say about them?

 

- Do they express their “real” identity in their images?

 

-What should I reveal and not reveal about myself in the images and comments I post?

 

- What are the ambiguities and miscommunications that tend to happen when people express themselves with images, and with typed comments?

 

- How do I react when people reply to me and my photos with positive or negative comments? What does it mean if I get no response at all?

 

- Why am I drawn to some people, photos, and groups, and not others?

 

- What does it take to feel like I BELONG to this community?

 

- Is it possible to get “addicted?”

 

Participating in a photo sharing communities can help you evaluate yourself as a photographer. As you observe a wide range of photographic styles, techniques, and skill levels, you’ll get a better sense of your own strengths and weaknesses. You’ll get a better sense of where you want to go with your work. When communities like Flickr provide features that enable people to comment on and rate images, you can gather tangible information about how “good” your photography might be – although it’s often wise to take view counts and rating systems with a big grain of salt. Online communities can be complex, confusing places, with many different subgroups and subcultures, and no simple way to predict how and why they react to each other the way they do. To benefit the most from photo sharing communities, take what makes sense, seems useful, and feels good - and leave the rest.

 

* This image and essay are part of a book on Photographic Psychology that I’m writing within Flickr. Please see the set description.

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