Flickr Addiction and The Associated Health Risks
I want to take this opportunity to bring to your attention a photography related disease that is going mainly un-reported in the mainstream media. It could strike any photographer at any time and its effects are usually terminal. I refer, of course, to Flickr Addiction.
I urge you all to take this very seriously. You should not under estimate the effects that flickr.com can have on your health.
life before flickr addiction
Take a look at this fresh faced nerd (photo right). This was me some years back. It is clear, apart from looking like the love child of Bill Gates and Gollum from Lord of the Rings, that I had a bright future ahead of me. I was going places. A happy childhood and good education, the world was my oyster.
Now I’m a broken man…..those dreams have faded and I can’t think about the future….it just isn’t on my radar. All I can concentrate on is where the next comment is coming from, what new group needs my input, how to tag my photos to increase my chances of reaching explore and how I can best get around to organising my photos into sets to please my contacts. I no longer sleep for fear of missing new uploads from friends and family. I have lost the power of speech and merely babble incoherently when a member of my family talks to me about anything other than photography. It is ruining my relationships and affecting my work. I guess the worst thing is that I just didn’t see it coming. I thought it was harmless. I was wrong.
It starts off quite innocently, you start uploading a few of your holiday snaps and old family pictures to share with friends. They make it so easy with their fancy uploading widgets and desktop applications. Then you start receiving comments and looking at other people’s photostreams in return. You get excited about the images you’ve seen. Some images seem of such great quality it inspires you to do better. You must find more. You make new friends who comment on most of your uploads. It makes you feel giddy with glee and you have to take more pictures just to hear the feedback from your peers. You feel suddenly like you should learn about photography properly and start taking pictures of flowers and kittens just to fit in with the other guys. At this point it spirals out of control. The addiction has you now….resistance is futile. (Scientists suspect that this trigger point is possibly directly related to the effect of kitten images on the human brain)
Then you begin to join groups. The gang mentality kicks in. You suddenly decide your camera isn’t good enough and you must spend money on more equipment. This well known and embarrassing side effect – GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) – is very common in flickr addicts.
You slowly but surely run out of things to photograph in your neighbourhood. You rely on finding like-minded sufferers in groups to fuel your appetite for flickr and photography. In my case I joined a 365days group. Taking a self portrait every day for a year, what could be more indulgent?…I had turned hardcore junkie! The resulting set of photos now almost serves as a diary of my fall into despair.
Only a week into the project and I had forgotten how to eat properly, I didn’t leave the house for days at a time and was forced to eat what I could find at the back of the cupboard.
Nearly a month into the project and symptoms of flickr addiction really kick in. Mood swings associated with withdrawal experienced during the day at work would result in random acts of violence.
I am ashamed to say that these episodes of violence only escalated as my project continued, each time growing in severity until one day the inevitable happened, I killed in the name of flickr….
The boundaries between real life and flickr life became blurred. Maintaining my own identity became an internal struggle with fantastical delusions and flights of fancy becoming prevalent.
In the end the conclusion was inevitable and I became my online identity almost 24-7. Disco~Stu took charge and nearly all that remained of Stuart Mackenzie was buried deep in my subconcious.
I’d like to tell you that there is hope for me, but I can’t. There is no cure for flickr addiction, the best you can hope for is short periods of remission. Although my 365days project is finished I still waste the majority of my time trawling through the pages of flickr for my next fix…any project I can think of – just to get that buzz….that flickr high.
I hope there are people reading this who maybe are not completely hooked yet. Please let this be a warning to you. ACT NOW! while you still can.
The addiction itself is not deadly but it is extremely difficult to live with. You will struggle to find time for normal life. Your family and friends will need counselling at some stage if they decide to support you through the difficult stages. Please also be warned that the disease can be contagious and you may find real-life friends falling into the trap. I am sadly responsible for at least one of my friends becoming a flickr addict and this weighs heavily on my mind.
Try to keep your exposure to normal people to a minimum and if necessary you may have to seek out other infected individuals for company and social interaction. Sufferers are not difficult to spot to the trained eye.
If I can leave you with one thing from this post I urge you all to please PLEASE PLEASE….think of the children….they are the innocent victims of this terrible disease.
!!spread the word people!!
If you’ve been reading this article and suspect you are a flickr addict or you live with one….please phone this free helpline number 00876 4442 789012 for assistance or leave a comment below 
32 Comments to Flickr Addiction and The Associated Health Risks
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Dear World, I’m Simon and I’m a Fladdict.
I have been a fladdict for two years and at tis point in my life, I can’t see a way back.
Please help,
Simon
(I was a normal child, after all)
Ho my go, I’m one of the FA. Like you, it all become worst(better?) when I have begun a 365 (75 days ago). And know I’m thinking about spreading my addiction with friends! I need to stop. (naaaaaa! pleasure is so great!)
Could we create a group for “anonymous flickr addicted people” , “AFAP” ?
My name is Paul, and I too am a fladdict (because it sounds better than fliddict)… just a small donation of five hundred pounds a month can help support a fladdict like me through those difficult periods of the 365 days project. Please, without your help I’ll be forced into a lifetime of arm-length self-portraits and mirrorshots.
Oh my good…so funny post!! I probably find it damn funny beacuse it´s my life story…although, to be honest, I think I´m between second and thrid disease stage.
A very illustrative example: yesterday was my birthday so I decided to buy some gifts to myself, now I have a brand new Crumpler bag, another memory card in order to have more space to shoots in RAW (even when I haven´t find out how I can converting in .jpg). I was looking for a tripod too, but I haven´t found one that I like it. So…what about shopping shoes or clothes???
That kind of addiction changes your prioritys…
I am a Fladdict…please help. There has to be a patch for something for this???
It seems much better and more rewarding than having your head stuck in milk creates full of vinyl most days, there are worse sicknesses out there trust me, take your photos and remember us less fortunate types that have no solace in “projects” except the endless pursuit of good black discs and the perfect pin prick diamond
i wonder if there are fladdict addicts. you know, people who are addicted to we the fladdicts. just throwing it out there.
Hi, my name is Nath and I too am a Fladdict.
I feel so trapped. I have been away for nearly a month and I have about 1,000 pages of my contacts photos to go through. Sheer joy on one hand and the knowledge of the excruciating pain of getting to the final page wishing there was more on the other hand.
Send help.
please.
QUICKLY!
Stu you are frickin’ hilarious! I’m a fladdict, but I’ve been in remission for months now. Unfortunately I saw some flickr pages this week, and I’d really like just one flickr group. I won’t need any more after that. Just one… I hope.
its 4am
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.
Um.
I mean.
Hi, my name is Chloe and I too am a Fladdict.
“Hi Chloe.”
Hi.
Help meh.
Hahahaha I almost want to call that number..
Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. EVER.
I’ve just read this article again. Still the funniest thing ever.
Now it’s been 5 minutes, time to truck on over to Flickr to see if anyone’s uploaded . . .
Hi, I’m Sarah and this article made me realise that I’m a fladdict, too.
I started my 365 days project 4 days ago – I could have stopped it! But now there’s no return…
So glad I’m not alone. My name is lisa and I’m a Flickr addict. I’ve been uploading since 2005 and I can’t stop!
I didn’t know Kraft made Vegamite!
I hate flickr, really, I do.
(you believe me, right?)
Dear Photographywired, It’s been at least six minutes since I’ve clicked a link and ended up on flickr (fourcrows!) I can’t…. Make…. It…. Stop…..
Can’t…. Make…. coffeeeeee…. flickrrrrr
FLICKARGHHHHHHHHH!!!!
http://blogger.gtvone.com (blatant linkage!)
Too, too funny and possibly true
Oh god kill me now, All i do is hit refresh all day.
I even bought a N95 to browse flickr just in case i have to leave the house one day..well it could happen.
Great article…
I haven’t dove into a 365 Project yet, but all I can think about is my next upload, that next rush when you get a comment.
GAS has hit full force. I counted $40 in pennies the other day.
All I can say is, I’ve officially been a flickr addict for over 4 years. And yes, I’ve dragged several family members down with me – though at first they kicked and screamed, once they had tasted it they had to have more, and now they are as addicted as I.
Though I tried to do the whole 365/days thing twice, and failed… I was too busy surfing flickr to remember to take my own picture – and by the time I remembered, it was too late to edit it til the next day… I got hopelessly behind. Good on you for sticking it out, though! You have some awesome shots!
Thing is, the biggest problem with flickr is all the cool stuff integrated with it now. Not only can you post your photos and get feedback and all that, but you can go to other sites that suck your photos right off flickr and make them into cards and stickers and calendars and everything! There’s not enough time in the day! Oh crap, I still have 35 photos to edit tonight…
Dear photographywired,
I just realised that there is no internet access at camp.
A camp I am going to in 7 days.
A camp I will be at for.. for..
FOR FIVE DAYS.
I lied.
I realised that a long while ago.
BUT WHAT I DID TRULY ONLY JUST REALISE, IS THAT THIS WILL BE THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF TIME I HAVE EVER BEEN AWAY FROM FLICKR SINCE I JOINED.
EVER.
HOW ON EARTH AM I GOING TO SURVIIIIIIIIVE?!
I best be purchasing some meds and various paper bags..
I am in all seriousness, worried about how I am going to take this.
I need help.
Much love and fear,
Jasper.
[Jasper is my alien's name]
Spot on.
Hilarious.
Word perfect.
Excellent images to convey each stage.
Sadly not a soul reading this can be saved.
Or wants to be.
Hi, my name is Elie. I use to be a flickr addict. And with the help of my other flickr addicts friends, brother in arms, looking for salvation, I’m now high on life
Awesome article. Hilarious.
Dear photographywired.com,
I am a flickr addict, been using for over a year and don’t see how in the world I’ll be able to stop.
Now wait… Gotta go check the new entries…
Hilarious Stu
Superb stuff and absolutely spot-on but, in the time I’ve been reading it, I’ll bet I’ve had another comment on my stream. I’d better go and check ….
ScudMonkey
yep I totally get that and suffer similarly ( although i can never understand why anyone would want to take a photo of themselves 365 times! )
Fi
[...] looks like I’m not the only one who has a problem… Posted in Flickr, Geek, [...]
I am not the only one!
D
My doctor said I was insane. Then I told him HE was insane and he needed to get a flickr to get a LiFe!
Then I was not so gently escorted outside.
I’m afraid it’s taking new dimension around here.
The country is running out of pink paint.
See for yourself
I’m dying of laughter