Gray’s Anatomy – Dogs have owners, cats have staff

It’s hard to believe it but it’s Friday again, another whirlwind week has flown by, well all our regular readers know that Fridays at theappwhisperer mean just one thing, Gray’s Anatomy by Richard Gray. This week Richard Gray takes another humorous look at Instagram content and it’s prevalence of cat images, it also reminds me of a book I have entitled ‘all cats have Aspergers’, don’t miss it. Over to you Richard (foreword by Joanne Carter).

“Perhaps people who moan about how many pictures of cats there are on Instagram (and elsewhere for that matter) should take careful note of the title of this week’s Gray’s Anatomy. One day, you will be up against the wall facing the cats clawing squad. If the cats could be bothered to take over the world, that is. But actually it’s probably better just to play dumb, get your meals provided, go out chasing things and sleep for hours in centrally-heated houses. That’s how smart they are.

And in an clever veneration of cats (perhaps with the day of cat judgement in mind), London’s prestigious The Photographers’ Gallery is currently featuring a series of photos of cats on the internet. I started giving a course in photography with the iPhone there last Saturday and as I walked into the venue, my eye was instantly drawn to their huge screen in the foyer, showing a series of cat photos. Cats perched in odd positions, cats sticking their heads in funny places, cats with their big cat eyes, etc etc. They so cute!!

The strap line for the exhibition is: “Web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers. Web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats.” And whenever someone trots out the arguments about why they don’t like Instagram, they say, oh it’s just pictures of teens, sunsets and…. cats. Yes, there are loads of photos of cats on Instagram. Cats are brilliant of course (I’m staying in their good books – I know they monitor my blog) but I’m not so keen on teens and sunsets. But Instagram is like TV. If you don’t like something, don’t tune into it. Go where the good stuff is (eg @cats_of_instagram, which incidentally has over 400,000 followers – you know why). And mister, just watch what you’re saying. The day of cat judgement could be soon.”