Like me like me like me....

Was it only 20 odd years ago that Photo sharing sites emerged from the primordial swamp of the Internet?????
How important Likes , Shares and newly found 'Internet' friends became...or did they. I burned my first Flickr account, there was madness out there, I'd done a series of Images of Manchester buildings appearing to be emerging from under a bright blue sea.....too much time on my hands and Photoshop to faff with... they gathered pace on viewing figures, being shared all over the place and I was batting away questions from all and sundry when, 1 image got to 250,000 views I thought the only way to escape was to burn my online account...so I did...freedom....until that is I opened a new flickr account..
​Meh, all these images had to go somewhere, but then I discovered agents and selling sites and the rest is history...or is it.

Facebook seemed a place to share but has now buried its presence under an avalanche of advertising, Instagram is trying to stand fast against the TikTok tsunami of human madness by upping video content and alienating all those stills photographers at the same time so what is left....
​Have a look at the image above, posted on 16/07/2022 it now has 23,000 views, no comments to answer, no likes to get hot and bothered about, just views, pure and simple. Back in the day you would go around to someone's house, all of a sudden a packet with Max Spielman or Snappy Snaps would be produced and you'd view someone's holiday, wedding or kids party, if you wanted to share then a trip back to the lab for a reprint was needed and a 'Like' was passed on verbally. I have looked at a lot of work by Photographers and it always saddens me that the driver behind posting is to be liked and vaunted rather than move their image making forwards. We live in the golden age of Democratic Photography, got a phone, you are a photographer, anyone has the ability to press a button but understanding the difference between a photograph and an Image is in the hands of the person who presses the button, not in all the 'Likes' attributed to the picture you upload.
​So as some sort of conclusion, the place to Post Images is Google maps, stick 'em on there, be seen by the world , no need to bat away questions, no 'friends' to query and a way of sharing your view on the familiar...I wonder if my Myspace page is getting any hits still???