popularity

Why Good Photos Turn Bad: Instagram and Photography ‘Groupthink’

Landscape and travel photographer James Popsys has noticed a troubling habit lately: he's posting things "for the dopamine hit," and he doesn't believe he's the only one. The result, says Popsys, is a "photographic groupthink," caused by social media, that encourages people to post the same thing over and over, just because it's popular.

Algorithms Replaced Gatekeepers and Lowered the Bar on Quality

The rise of social media has had a massive impact on the art we see, consume, and interact with on a daily basis. Some of that impact was positive, some negative, but one of the most radical changes has also been one of the most detrimental: the demise of the gatekeepers.

The Top 15 Photos on Flickr in 2017

As 2017 comes to a close, Flickr has been doing some data crunching on the billions of photos uploaded during the year by photographers around the world. Today the photo-sharing service revealed the most popular pictures of the year.

MIT Algorithm Tries to Predict How Many Likes Your Photo Will Get Per Day

A photographer's primary concern when taking a photo might not be "I wonder how many likes this will get," but being able to gauge popularity could still come in handy when you're trying to decide which photos to upload to your favorite sharing site.

Enter MIT PhD candidate Aditya Khosla and his new algorithm that does just that: tells you how popular your photos will be before you even upload them.

Vine Picks Up Steam, Passes Instagram in Total Daily Twitter Shares

Earlier today, we shared the news that SnapChat may be on the way to a $1 billion valuation even as the company moves aggressively towards a monetization scheme. Now, it's Vine's turn to shine, as the 6-second video sharing app proves its worth by blowing past Instagram in total daily Twitter shares.

Almost (I’ll Make Ya) Famous

One year ago today I took a photograph that would change my life. A single frame turned my whole world upside down, and brought on a storm of media attention, praise, criticism, confusion, wonder, and doubt. After one hell of a ride this past year, I think today is a good day to finally tell this photo's story...