Internet Courtesy - Read if You Use Instagram or Pinterest!

Monday, July 30, 2012

screen image from pinterest, captured 7/30/12

Hey there, today's post isn't quite super beauty orientated. It more has to do with what I describe as 'internet courtesy' (or in some cases a lack thereof).

Instagram and Pinterest, not to mention numerous of other forms of social media are fantastic for bloggers. I mean it. Since joining Pinterest and seeing how my work can spread like wildfire (thank you guys so much for pinning and repinning my pictures! Truly, it's really helped get my blog out there), I can tell you first hand how this sort of social media sharing can be a blogger's best friend. Some of my posts have sky rocketed in views and responses, it's been phenomenal in reaching new readers.

However, there is a flip side. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a gorgeous manicure and clicked on it on Pinterest hoping to see what polishes and materials were used, perhaps to find a tutorial or simply to find out whose fantastic work it is and instead found the dreadful dead link. Eeek! There's been a few times where I really want to recreate a look or had questions, but couldn't find out more. After all, whenever I re-create a manicure or take inspiration from someone else's work, I want to credit them and pay them the courtesy of linking back to their post. I can't tell you how uncomfortable how it makes me to only be able to say "inspired by something I found on Pinterest".

So I beg you, please leave some sort of trail back to the original poster or content. Even if a link is unavailable, it'd be really great to have some sort information, even if it's the name of the blog or the author because usually with a bit of Googling, one can find the original bits.

image from instagram.com

Now... regarding Instagram. Recently a few friends and other users have shown me accounts where the user has posted my pictures as their own. Yeah. Even with the blatant watermark that I have on all my pictures. Here's the thing- truly I do not care if other people want to share my images. But to try to pass it off as your own work, really bites. It tickled me in a weird way to see other users leaving comments like "Awesome!!! What colors did you use?!" hoping for an answer that the poster would not know because clearly there was a picture with a watermark that did not = the poster's username. It's also kind of funny because scrolling through these users' pictures I see that they lifted many, many bloggers' pictures- isn't the fact that they have 3549 pictures of different sort of hands proof that the content doesn't belong to them? I mean, you'd have to be some sort of strange stitched up human centipede creature to have light-medium skin with medium sized nail beds one day, dark skin with beautiful elongated almond nails the next and alabaster hands with expertly squared short nails the day after that. (Of course, if you are a human centipede creature with millions of hands, I applaud you for figuring out how to use a smartphone and paint all your numerous digits.)

The gist of what I'm saying is that the very least (and I do mean LEAST) thing is to let your followers know that the content isn't yours (#notmine) but really, that's the minimal effort. In the wake of the Sinful fiasco (see what happens when you try to pass off bloggers' work as your own?), I think that the most honest and just thing to do is to take a few moments to properly credit and let others shine for their work. Most of the people who use both IG and Pinterest are very conscious of linking back and I salute them for doing good in the interwebz!

What do you think of online image theft? What do you consider to be right thing to do when posting others' content and pictures?