favs social currency



I was curious about Flickr favs (favorites) and wanted to know how they were distributed across a random sample. After collecting the data I was surprised to learn that, by my estimate, only about 6% of the photos had any favs and of those 80% have only one. The data in the graph above contains only photos with favs. 

Favorite are a cheap social currency. I had expected consensus on what was "good" and I had also expected to find more photos with favs. This is speculation, but this could mean that favs are not a popular feature. An alternate explanation is that 99% of all photos are not that interesting. 

I used favs and explored the favs of my favs, but I seem to be in the minority. All this has made me curious about other features like comments, follows, galleries, and groups.

Tools like Flickr are great for training your brain with great photography, and its educational to explore and drill into metadata and technical discussions. However, the current trend is towards opaque marketing feeds that blur between paid-placement and algorithmic engagement. Evidence suggests these new feeds are not good for your brain.

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