Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Flickr Comment

After reading Lyle's email today about problems with Flickr, I tried to go to the website at school. As usual I typed in Disney World and was most astonished at what I found. The second picture in the list was a picture of a very large woman who was sitting on a bench eating. The caption claimed that they were talking about obesity and food addiction.

It was quite apparent by the description of the person who posted the picture ,that it was taken without this woman knowing. They made no effort to blur or hide her face in any way. My heart just sunk. How horrible is it that anyone can take a picture and post it on the Internet for everyone to see and use.

I am SICK TO MY STOMACH about this picture. I read the comments posted by other Flickr users regarding this picture and most were not very kind and supportive or related to food addiction or obesity. It was just an opportunity for people to make unkind and hateful remarks about a woman who doesn't even know her picture is on the Internet.

HOW CAN THIS BE OKAY! I was going to flag the picture but technically it did not meet any criteria that Flickr has for questionable photos. I just cannot get this poor woman out of my head and how horrible she or someone she knows would feel if they knew this picture was out there.

What is wrong with our society that makes people think this acceptable? If this truly were for the purposes of a discussion on obesity of food addiction and you truly had concern for people in her condition, you should have covered her face.

I truly am sick over this!

5 comments:

Junior Master Margaret said...

I just made a blog about that video I told you about. Reading your post made me sick all over again. I wish there was something we could do. What is wrong with our society to think it's okay to make fun of people and what are we teaching our kids?

schnauzermommy said...

I agree JMM and as we said in our previous discussion it is all without the knowledge of the "hurt" party. People are able to hide behind the comfort and privacy of their computer screen and do things they might not (I hope not at least)otherwise do if they had to do it to someone's face. I don't know what to do either!

Teresa said...

Wow. That's really awful. Maybe if we all make comments to this effect at the site of the picture, it will make some difference, if not a lot of difference.

speedreader said...

That is certainly one of the HUGE downfalls of having all this technology at our fingertips. It is way too easy for people to post hurtful things...and then allow others to make awful comments about them. It seems there should be some way to prevent that or limit it. It sure does make you think about teaching "computer ethics" about decency not just copyright issues.

rileyreader said...

This a great example of the negative aspects of technology and evasion of privacy. It's very sad.