Monday, October 4, 2010

What irks me

I have a newfound pet peeve: wedding guests posting pictures on Facebook (or some other public site) without running it by the bride or groom. And this new pet peeve runs counter to my previous position. Before we got engaged and I started paying attention to what is/is not polite, I didn't think anything of uploading wedding pics. (In fact, I did it as recently as New Year's Eve 2009.) So what changed my hypocritical mind?

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The beach wedding of our friends this past weekend! (A otherwise blissful and not to be forgotten event, thanks guys!) Before social networking sites exploded in popularity, the number of people sharing photos publicly was pretty low. If you wanted to share them, you'd email or upload them to an online photo gallery for close friends. Now, unflattering or otherwise embarrassing pictures are visible to just about everyone (depending on privacy settings). Yes, funny pictures are just that. But whether it's a rowdy bachelorette party or just a bad angle, please stop to think if your friend would mind. (Even more so if you KNOW they have insecurities and the photo magnifies said issue.)

Maybe I just think too much about other people's feelings (Mr. P is nodding from a safe distance), but isn't it better to err on the side of caution? I understand you cannot control what people say or do and run the risk looking like a control freak (or, ugh, Bridezilla) if you try, even nicely. With all those thoughts under consideration, I carefully selected and edited the photos from this weekend then uploaded them to private albums with a message to the bride, groom and maid of honor that they would only be made public after their review and final approval.

Imagine my surprise when another wedding guest not only uploaded unflattering pictures but made them available to eeeverrrrryone. I'm still not sure why this struck me as inconsiderate enough to devote a whole post to it. It just does; I'm going with my gut. (With that said, our plan is to encourage our guests to share their photos via a private photo sharing account so all the guests can see them... even the ones who aren't tech-savvy. If we have internet access on our honeymoon, you can be I'll be stalking the website for new pics.)

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Well, this is quite a pickle. Do you "like" or "dislike"? What's your take on the best way to handle online photo etiquette?

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