A lot of people have been talking about Flickr’s big change. They are limiting the free accounts to only 1,000 photos instead of the terabyte offered several years ago (2013). I had been a pro user since 2006 and then switched to a free account when they offered the free terabyte because I didn’t see the point in paying for a pro account. It seems this change has pissed a lot of people off. I am throwing my unpopular opinion into the ring. I applaud Flickr for making this decision. I switched back to a Pro account almost as soon as they announced this change.

I applaud the change because of what I wrote about in this post. Social media has become an enterprise where we are providing content for these multi-million dollar companies but not getting paid for our content. To add insult to injury, our brains are getting hacked and manipulated so that we will buy the products of the REAL customers of these websites, the advertisers. This is evil. I welcome a model that gets back to genuine connection with other people all over the world, no strings attached. I am more than happy to pay for this service. I realize now that if a social media service is offered “for free” there are possibly evil motives.

I am happy to pay the mere $50 a year to Flickr. Flickr has served me well for over a decade. I applaud their decision to follow a different path, and appreciate that they are making sure their users continue to be the customers of their product.