The politics of having a face

[echorec]

Does anyone else find themselves rejected on IG 98.9452% of the time? Whenever I send a follow request to a private account, I always get declined. Even if the person is a public figure with 10,000+ followers.

I'm not talking about rejection, as in flirting. I just want to take a brief survey of what's happening. I took my pictures off social media years ago, because I had concerns about my image being misused in security software or my likeness being used for scams/phony accounts. That's my decision, but apparently people who want their face to be a commodity, which they market and benefit from don't appreciate my counter policy.

I find it fascinating that women complain constantly about being hit on and propositioned, but if you're just someone who wants to observe the world, without being too intrusive, the door is always closed in your face. I'm not being barred for bad conduct, but apparently I'm not following the unwritten rules either, which cannot be tolerated.

I just can't see a justification for this. If you're an artist with a long-term partner, you're presumably not looking for someone to start flirting with, so why does it matter if the people in your network are photos of plants or photos of people? Human beings are internally just a collection of ideas, so why does their mask matter, if neither party wants to date the other?

The hypocrisy of it is absurd to me: you made your account private, because you wanted to secure more control over your life, but you don't think other people should have dominion over their own privacy.

[retinal orbita]

I can’t speak to that firsthand (my IG pic is me in a garbage dump) but I recently read about @bandmemes666 (my favourite meme account) who was saying they had their account flagged for some objectionable post they made and they’ve lost ALL of their “engagement” since then - they used to get like 100+ followers a day and now they get like, 2. And as a fan I’ll say the memes are “still fresh”.

So yeah, you may be in some algorithm black hole. I don’t think I’ve ever been declined to follow a private account.

[frodog]

You have some very strange concerns.

[retinal orbita]

Also questioning the logic of a Zuckerberg owned trillion dollar marketing nest of vipers is futile. It’s not supposed to make sense.

[MechaGodzilla]

the algorithm is a cruel and fickle master

[Eivind August]

The hypocrisy of it is absurd to me: you made your account private, because you wanted to secure more control over your life, but you don't think other people should have dominion over their own privacy.

Are you sure this is the reasoning though? And not "oh, a random account, I don't need them to follow me"?

[D.o.S.]

The hypocrisy of it is absurd to me: you made your account private, because you wanted to secure more control over your life, but you don't think other people should have dominion over their own privacy.

Are you sure this is the reasoning though? And not "oh, a random account, I don't need them to follow me"?

Yeah I think it's important to avoid overcomplicating things in the absence of evidence.

[goroth]

I’m always sceptical to accounts with 0 posts.

[dubkitty]

the algorithm is a cruel and fickle master

whenever i see that word my brain translates it into "Al Gore rhythms," which is a contradiction in terms.

[retinal orbita]

I’m always sceptical to accounts with 0 posts.

Same - I had initially misunderstood and thought there were no photos of the OP - but zero posts? I wouldn’t accept it either and assume it’s a spam account. Of which I get followed by several daily. Thanks but I am married and I do not want “hot sexy with beautiful Russian woman” please and thank you.

[Blackened Soul]

rejected.

Maybe they all come here and read your posts?

[goroth]

I’m always sceptical to accounts with 0 posts.

Same - I had initially misunderstood and thought there were no photos of the OP - but zero posts? I wouldn’t accept it either and assume it’s a spam account. Of which I get followed by several daily. Thanks but I am married and I do not want “hot sexy with beautiful Russian woman” please and thank you.

I dunno, maybe I misunderstood.

[oldangelmidnight]

I don't know that I've ever tried to follow a private account. If it's private, it's probably not for me.

[friendship]

No justification is required. Everyone deserves the autonomy to decide who they want to share their lives (or social media content, in this case) with.

[Ghost Hip]

The hypocrisy of it is absurd to me: you made your account private, because you wanted to secure more control over your life, but you don't think other people should have dominion over their own privacy.

Are you sure this is the reasoning though? And not "oh, a random account, I don't need them to follow me"?

Yeah I think it's important to avoid overcomplicating things in the absence of evidence.

Yeah this is where I'm at. It sounds like you also want others to not have dominion over their own privacy.

You are a complex human being and your reasons for remaining private are valid, just the same there are real complex human beings on the other end of these accounts who could have any myriad of reasons to be mindful of who they allow follow them. There are many reasons to want a private account. Such as to avoid employers from seeing your memes/content. I don't personally condone jumping to blaming women for complaining about being hit on/propositioned, but wouldn't an account with no face or posts be more suspicious than an account that appears more 'transparent'? (using transparent loosely since we're talking social media) Someone with no face or posts is more difficult to know and hold accountable and some people don't want to take that risk. You can say you are an observer all you want but you're asking people to give you the benefit of the doubt that you aren't a creep, a potential employer, a family member snoopin', or just a bot/spam account.