F&*k You Friday! Webcam Photos

What you look like on webcam - The Anti-Social MediaWe live in the age of cameras. Our computers have cameras. Our phones have cameras. Hell, my iPhone has two cameras, so it can watch me and a friend.

With all these cameras, I’m amazed George Orwell’s zombie isn’t shuffling among us. I imagine he would begin speeding the zombie infection by gnawing our hands off so we couldn’t pick up another camera phone.

But, that’s another problem.

Cameras are tools of varying quality. The camera in my iPhone isn’t as good as the camera my friend Christine has. And webcams have the worst quality.

Webcams are designed to share acceptable quality video over the internet. They’re not supposed to replace your point and shoot camera. They aren’t supposed to make things look good. They’re best shooting video across the web on Skype.

So when you have a crappy headshot  for your avatar you took with you “HD” webcam, I’m not impressed. Hell, it doesn’t even feel authentic. It tells me you were too cheap and lonesome to even get a friend with a point and shoot camera to take a nice photo of you.

And do you want to be known as the person who’s cheap and has no friends?

I’m not going to say there isn’t a place for webcam shots. I take them myself for fun, and sometimes you just need to take a quick photo. But do you want your professional presence to be defined by something that looks terrible?

You don’t. You deserve better.

So say “Fuck you!” to the terrible avatar you took with your webcam. Get some friends together with the best camera you have, and take a new photo that you’re proud of. I want everyone to look their very best, and your webcam is working against you.

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3 Responses to “F&*k You Friday! Webcam Photos”

  1. aburtch October 14, 2011 at 5:26 pm #

    Love the photo that accompanies this rant.

  2. gamification on mobile social applications October 18, 2011 at 1:46 am #

    Lol, super awesome post. I do know people who use webcam profile shots as part of their Linkedin profile picture. Guess webcam shots are only good when you wanna meet up with your friends (after an online discussion) , and ask them random questions like , ” so how do I look in this? Good?”

  3. Kama October 19, 2011 at 12:51 pm #

    I bought an HP laptop last year, and I was a kind of shocked at how good the built in webcam was. My old webcam made me look the same no matter if I was done up to the 9s, or just rolled out of bed. So, when I wanted to videochat with someone I wanted to impress, this became another consideration. :)

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