Reevaluating My Use of Social Media Technologies
Looking back on my first blog post of the semester, I can see that some of my social media uses have changed. For instance, thanks to our class Twitter feed, I have been able to engage in some good back-and-forths about issues with the readings each week. Interacting and finding out whether my classmates are facing the same issues with the reading before class has been good as it has allowed me to ease up on overanalyzing readings assuming that it is just me that isn't following a given author's argument.
One thing that I was wary of when class began was the intense targeting of advertisements on Facebook. When I used to use it more frequently, I would always be disturbed by how accurate some of ads were. This bothered me to the point where it was one of the major factors in my giving up on the network. After our discussions in class of marketing and the amount of information Facebook collects has been really eye opening. I think that although in using the site, a user is agreeing to terms and conditions, which likely outline this practice, it is still disturbing how much they know. I also assume that, based on being able to get a .zip file of all of the information they have about you, even erasing your gender, sexual orientation, age, and location from your page would not change this as they probably have it stored. It's all a bit too Big Brother-esque. Having this class an opportunity to have an open forum to discuss our social media use, and analyze it in reference to academic articles, was definitely valuable to me. I think most people who log on daily to Facebook or Twitter do not think beyond it as a chance to see photos from a friend's vacation, check the news, or post an update about themselves. Being able to compare my use to others, compare our backgrounds in social media use, and understand how it places in a greater picture of social media use has helped me realize that I am probably in the middle ground of social media "prosumers," which is something I am fine with.
Clarke
One thing that I was wary of when class began was the intense targeting of advertisements on Facebook. When I used to use it more frequently, I would always be disturbed by how accurate some of ads were. This bothered me to the point where it was one of the major factors in my giving up on the network. After our discussions in class of marketing and the amount of information Facebook collects has been really eye opening. I think that although in using the site, a user is agreeing to terms and conditions, which likely outline this practice, it is still disturbing how much they know. I also assume that, based on being able to get a .zip file of all of the information they have about you, even erasing your gender, sexual orientation, age, and location from your page would not change this as they probably have it stored. It's all a bit too Big Brother-esque. Having this class an opportunity to have an open forum to discuss our social media use, and analyze it in reference to academic articles, was definitely valuable to me. I think most people who log on daily to Facebook or Twitter do not think beyond it as a chance to see photos from a friend's vacation, check the news, or post an update about themselves. Being able to compare my use to others, compare our backgrounds in social media use, and understand how it places in a greater picture of social media use has helped me realize that I am probably in the middle ground of social media "prosumers," which is something I am fine with.
Clarke