The recent hoo-ha over Instagram’s possible change in Terms and Conditions got me thinking. Thinking how lucky I am.

I have the skills needed to host my own web sites. Take a bit of WordPress, add some plugins and a bit of php coding and you’ve got a family tree web site. Or an image library, or a blog.

But most people don’t; so if they want to share their lives, they turn to Facebook, Google, Instagram, My Space, Bobo, Friends Reunited, whatever. Someone else does the work for them – but the downside is that those companies do need to turn a profit, or at least break even. Why should they host your stuff for free?

Most of the WordPress community comments seem to encourage people to do a self-hosted site, or to open a WordPress.com account; there was even a plug for an Instagram-to-WordPress importer. But ultimately, it only works if you’re comfortable with coping when things go wrong; when you run out of disk space, or the software needs updating.

Maybe we should just all learn more computer skills…?