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Has the person that you’re secretly crushing on become a “nudge tool” on your social media platform? What about the person you’re in a fight with? Do they appear at the top of your news feed because they put themselves there, or because they have been put there so you will stay connected? In other words, can you find evidence of this kind of manipulation…or others, in your “news” feed? Is this ok with you, ethically? Why or why not?
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It has come to my attention that the name of the person that likes the most of your pictures, or who has spent that most time on your profile on Instagram will show up on your number of likes, for example “Marina Bartels and 129 others liked your photo”. I’m not sure if this is true, just something that I’ve heard, but I can totally believe it to be true. After watching the documentary “The Social Dilemma” I am constantly reminded of the documentary and the three imaginary guys behind technology controlling your notifications. I have noticed that if I open up face book with no notifications and scroll a little, by the time I close the app I have three notifications. Most of the notifications that I do receive don’t even have to do with me, instead they’re notifications of my friends who will often tag me in their posts. I definitely find it concerning when this happens and then immediately annoyed that people are controlling my life on social media based on my previous actions, especially with how addictive social media is.
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I can’t say I’ve ever noticed certain people pushed into my social media constantly, a certain topic maybe but a person no. I think a person would have to already be interacting with someone a lot to have an algorithm pick up on that. So manipulation probably isn’t why someone gets a person in their feed at first, but it can be why it’s perpetuated. If an algorithm is doing that though, it’s just another unethical way to take advantage of people. Using them for information gathering.
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Personally, I don’t use enough social media to say that certain people who I liked or had fights with are “nudge tools” that get me on social media. However, I do see a lot of targeted ads on my Instagram or YouTube that seem oddly specific for me judging on what I spend my time viewing/searching online. This manipulation also works since the people who run the platform somehow seems to know my insecurities and how to fix them (through products I see on advertisements on YouTube or Instagram) and it makes me want to actually go out and buy those products since they pertain specifically to my interests. I think this can go both ways, it’s unethical that those people running these addicting platforms know so much about me through what I view online since they’re able to manipulate me into buying things that I didn’t know I needed until going online or on social media. It can also be ethical because on the other hand, sometimes I find a product that was targeted to me online that solves a personal issue I have, thus making my life better in some way. If it weren’t for those people knowing my data, I wouldn’t have been able to buy that certain product that I actually needed. However, personally, I still think it’s a bit creepy for those people to know my personal issues/ data.
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Of course we can observe manipulation on social media platforms, generally in my case though its chosen. I choose to like posts that I see and in return I see similar posts to it, this I have no problem with and I think is pointed out on essentially every social media platform. We are constantly informed that the algorithm will produce similar posts to those that we like, which is just a way of generating content that we would prefer to see. The collection and storage of other data however, is unethical. Social media platforms and organizations should not be taking in any more personal data than we choose to give them through our likes and dislikes. It is a form of an invasion of privacy, and as stated by several above, is rather creepy as well. Seeing targeted ads is a very grey area however, you do supplement what you like and dislike and being able to see brands you may enjoy is great, but off topic liking one thing and having your feed fill with ads for that item in particular is creepy.
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I find it more to be true that certain people/genres show up more on the news feeds. Considering that crushes or people you dislike you might pay more attention to, then yeah, they would show up more. What freaks me out the most is when I get ads for things I talk about with other people. None of it is okay but that really just gets me going. It is NOT ethical at all. Human were not meant to be watched like lab rats are, in my opinion.
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Like someone posted earlier, I have noticed that Instagram and Facebook tend to post the name of an individual to alert me that that individual has liked that photo. Additionally, someone that has not posted to Instagram in a while will often “nudge” me to notify the fact that they posted. I’m not sure how these “nudges” are decided or which algorithm is used. I believe that certain individuals are placed at the top of the news feed to keep users connected and invested in keeping up with that social media platform. Another place where I notice things tailored to my interests is the Instagram “Explore” page. This page is filled with individual interests and I think this is okay ethically. I think all algorithms that helps users find their interests is pretty ethical because I want to have the convenience of seeing what I enjoy right at the beginning. One thing I do not think is ethical is the monetization and advertisements (i.e selling my data). I believe I should have the privacy to not have my personalized interests and data collected and sold.
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Social media is designed to be highly addictive and use algorithms that know more about your own behaviors than you know about yourself. Because of this I think its very easy to say other people online, some of which you may like or what not, can easily be an influence on what you share and how often you use a certain social media platform. On social media right now if you open up instagram you will see your best friends and people who care about the most first before anything else, you didn’t input that information but they learned it from all our behaviors on their sites. Although it is easy to say this is ethically insensitive, we have all agreed to these conditions when we open their platforms every day and give them money scrolling through ads. It is difficult to be upset at these companies as we are all addicted to them and they have the power over us as we are playing their game and they always are one move ahead. None of us want to give up what the algorithms have been able to provide for us, but we need to realize what little tricks these companies use on us to get back to their sites. An example of this is having notifications not show any details until you open the app, and once you are in the app its most likely you will stay and begin to lose productivity.
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Has the person that you’re secretly crushing on become a “nudge tool” on your social media platform? What about the person you’re in a fight with? Do they appear at the top of your news feed because they put themselves there, or because they have been put there so you will stay connected? In other words, can you find evidence of this kind of manipulation…or others, in your “news” feed? Is this ok with you, ethically? Why or why not?
I try not to be on social media that much so I can’t really speak in-depth about the subject but there is something to be said regarding how social media can be manipulating. Pushing certain people into my social media life constantly is manipulative on so many levels, the use of coding and algorithms makes interacting with individuals more of a science than something that should come naturally. Forcing individuals in your life in such a fashion has to be unethical, manipulation probably isn’t why someone gets a person in their feed at first, but it can be the catalyst. I believe that this is the problem with social media it just further detaches people from other people.
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I have definitely noticed that my social media feed is manipulated based on whose profiles I view, who I communicate with most, and the different types of accounts I follow. For example, Instagram’s “explore” feed is tailored to the individual based on their history within the app, and the order in which users see stories changes depending on their interactions with accounts. I always find it disconcerting when I talk about a product or google something only to have it pop up as an advertisement later in a different app. The interconnectedness of social media and the use of data mining to create an ideal landscape feels disconcerting. This is especially noticeable with news and political information, because I notice that I often only see accounts with political views that are similar to my own. I make an effort to try to broaden my perspective and expand my bubble of information, but at the same time I feel quite powerless knowing that I have no control over a predetermined, personal algorithm that determines what I see. Personally, I think it is unethical to manipulate news feeds because it risks social media companies being able to change the way that people think, and that power comes without the consent or knowledge of the user.
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I only have a few social media accounts, all of which I use infrequently, so I haven’t noticed any one person being prioritized in my news feed. However, I have noticed that when I search for certain products on Google, advertisements for those products will show up, even on different apps. I find this concerning and a violation of my privacy. Communicating my search preferences to unknown third parties makes me uncomfortable, because if they can communicate your search preferences to others, who’s to say they won’t communicate your personal information, such as credit card numbers?
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I have noticed that if you talk about something, for example Popeyes chicken sandwich, your phone hears you say this and then the next day you look on Instagram, and boom theres an ad for the Popeyes chicken sandwich. This is very creepy and weird, however I have not noticed this really for trending people. To some extent I feel like I do see a lot of the same peoples new posts, but I think thats just because they post a lot of content. Either way social media is the craziest marketing scheme, that makes you feel attached to all these things, and that you need them to survive.
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Social Media platforms always seem to push certain accounts/people/merch, wheater I just mentioned them. I personally have 2 Instagram accounts, one of them is for celebrities/artists and brands such as restaurants or clothing and the other account is for family/friends/schoolmates and they both get targeted correctly to what’s going on in my everyday life. When I started working at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom I started getting bombarded with “Do you know messages” of my own coworkers on my friend’s account. One day I download a Lorde album, the next day I get Lorde fan accounts recommendations on the account where I follow artists!
In some aspects, this is okay cause it is recommending things I should like when it comes to entertainment. Sometimes it can be annoying, this is shown when I have friends from school or my job that are “activist” or “patriots” and I just get bombarded with different political figures, in a way it could shape your political views based on the people you follow subconsciously.
The only way I can correct this is by clearing cookies/history on my phone, blocking ads, and clicking on the ad, and putting “I am not interested in this post”, but it can be a tedious process so it’s just better to look more into the things you like and licking post more similar to your taste to customize your own feed. -
I’ve noticed that there are certain manipulations when it comes down to purchases online. For the same reason that there would be certain news feeds available, certain adds come up to get the consumer to purchase articles that they have been viewing. Big tech doesn’t have any plans on changing these manipulations because that’s how they get them most viewers and buyers. I enjoyed the movie “social dilemma” and I think it did a good job at showing our faults.
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Yes it’s very true in my opinion. Typically I notice that Instagram picks up on this the most. The person that has been most relevant in your thoughts somehow is always the first person that you see on liked posts. It doesn’t even matter if they know it or don’t on the basis of the idea of a crush. I think it’s pretty easy for the AI to pick this up based on your actions though. The amount of times you click their profile, send them things, view their story, etc. People can typically hide their emotional ties to individuals in the real world rather than the interweb. In my opinion I’m ethically opposed to this manipulation, but at the same time it keeps my social media viewing easy. I check out the group of people in my life that interests me and then I can get off when I’m done. I think that social media is such a wide and diverse space it’s nice having the media produced on your screen be based around the things and people you enjoy. The question comes, when do they get too deep into your personal life? That answer is nearly impossible to answer at this point with the little amount of knowledge that we are given on the basis of their “research”.
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I 100% agree that your people of interest are your nudges, this isn’t only your crust or who your in a fight with but others that you care a lot about. I do think that people that I interact with more are more often put at the top of my newsfeed to keep me entertained for longer. Which was not something I had thought about before the Social dilemma documentary. I don’t think it is ethical for the purpose of getting us sucked in for hours so they could make the most money. But if it was for the purpose of just purely seeing the people you are typically the most interested in then ethically i think it would be neutral or even in your favor a little. But because we have become a data source I think the ethics have defiantly become screwed with.
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Well it is quite interesting to at the least that social media does have a strong emphasis on seeing what each individual likes. I find it disturbing though at times when even when I look on google for something, Facebook already seems to have some sort of answer or have something strongly related to what I like. I find this manipulation often in my top of news feed generally showing things that I had peeked interest for. I would say it could be okay but the fact that something could do it without my acknowledgement is quite disturbing.
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Its honestly creepy how social media uses the information we feed into it. The people I talk to all the time via text or snapchat are usually the first feeds I see on Instagram, twitter, and Facebook. Ads are by far the weirdest, there been multiple occasions where id google something like a hoodie and ill see a bunch of ads for clothing by the same company all over Facebook. I wouldn’t say its manipulation, rather just an algorithms on different apps making use of all the information we put into our deceives to show us what we want to see.
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I don’t maintain a social media presence but I can say that I can find evidence of manipulation just about anywhere I go on the internet. Even the “autofill” feature in search bars can be manipulative as they discussed in the film. What I find really disturbing is that the same techniques are being used by news websites to gather more views. No one wants to read about some of the cruel things that happen in the world but that doesn’t change the fact that they happen, and who gets to decide which points are salient and which aren’t? When it came to the genocide of the Rohingyas I feel like modern society was shielded from it until the damage had been done. It’s sad to me that the United States – the protectors of the free world – was more interested in buying and selling products to its citizens than giving them access to information when there was more time to act.
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Do they appear at the top of your news feed because they put themselves there, or because they have been put there so you will stay connected? In other words, can you find evidence of this kind of manipulation…or others, in your “news” feed? Is this ok with you, ethically? Why or why not?
I am not sure I fall into this specific category, but I do find it suspicious how, ones feed while browsing the internet, can seem very convenient. What I mean by this, for example, I can be browsing Amazon, and all of a sudden, an item pops up that I need, with out any previous search history. This leads me to suspect that our technology might even be listening in on us. for example, the other day, i was in need of an HDMI splitter. I had only talked about it, never had searched it up or anything, and when i logged into Amazon, all of a sudden, the first thing that popped up, was an HDMI splitter. Their algorithms are either crazy well composed, or someone is listening in through out devices. Whatever the situation might be, this is not ethical. it invades the privacy of the individual, “w/o invading our privacy”. We cant prove it, and if we were able to, the courts would take us for a crazy person or some sort of conspiracy theorist. anything is possible, and i would not be surprised if something like this will come to surface in the near future.
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This is a tough question to answer because I rarely use social media. I’m not a fan of it and I never rarely use it unless I really feel like I want to say something. Which is rare as well. But, this isn’t manipulation exactly but an algorithm. The bots that monitor social media are programmed to give you what you enjoy. They find trends from your most liked, retweeted, or shared and uses that to create an algorithm to continue to keep giving you similar stuff. There was a case that Facebook figured out that this closeted gay kid was gay before anyone else because of the posts he liked and shared. In reality, its just algorithms making guesses, but this can be very ethically wrong in many minds because a robot can learn your secrets before other people do.
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It’s clear that social media knows a lot. It is able to recognize people who you interact more with and who “like” your photos. They do the same thing with ads. People claim that facebook is listening to them but that’s just proof of how good their AI is, it is able to select ads where people think it’s actually listening to them. I’m ok with them doing this because I don’t think they’re getting anything great out of me except advertising for boats and chocolate milk.
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Totally! Its hard not to notice the nudge, its no happenstance or coincidence. It was very eye opening to see how it counts how long you interact with each photo or add. The scary part is that monetarily speaking it is genius and the reason why these tech companies that are free to use have acquired the largest wealth know to mankind. Ethically speaking however it is destroying the lively hood of teens, adults, and societies as a whole. It is disgusting but one of the creators hit the nail on the head when he said, if its profitable the companies will continue the destruction until forced to change.
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I do not have many social media accounts, so I have not noticed any one person being prioritized. One of these reasons is because I probably do not know how t property use the platform or I just do not pay attention enough to see it. However, I have noticed that when I search for certain things on the internet, ads for those products will show up on different platforms. For big corporations to record and document what I search in order to appeal to my wants does not fully sit right with me. From the corporations point of view, I can understand why they would do this, which is to make more money. But I do not like the fact that what I am doing is being documented. However, I also do not do anything in which I feel is too private so the information that is gathered does not necessarily concern me. I just wish that people would not rely on technology so heavily because no of it is full proof.
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I am personally not active on social media, I never did get into it. With hearing everything that goes on with social media I also now try to stay away from it as much as I can. I had a couple social media accounts in middle school but when I was in high school I wasn’t on my phone much at all.
Some of the things that I hear about social media is that the algorithms tend to “listen” in and feed people information that matches their beliefs. For example, if there is somebody that believes the earth is flat, and is a follower of flat earth people, then a certain social media website known as Facebook will take this known information and make it a prominent subject in his news feed. It essentially filters out any opposition and instead feeds and fuels the pre-existing belief. I do not agree with the kinds of algorithms that Facebook has in place, I feel that it could be a dangerous tool that can affect greatly the unaware on social media.
Some people end up having a very close and narrow mindset on political things through the world due to the algorithms of Facebook, the news feed can potentially feed them information that fuels the fire that they have in their beliefs, never giving them a chance to see the views and opinions of the other side until its too late.
Aloha,
Kalani Asano Jr -
I wouldnt say i have noticed this in news feeds because i dont watch the news but i have noticed targeted adverting on social media platforms. For example if i like a video on Tiktok of someone cooking, odds are i will soon see an add about restaurants that produce food similar to that in the video. Instagram seems to take it a step further as i will discuss out loud with another person a specific topic taht my social media doesnt even remotely allude to and all of a sudden Instagram show me adds of it. Sometimes this is pretty helpful though. As to the ethics on using personal information to manipulate social media feeds and fuel targeted advertising, it all depends on the end affect on the consumer or target audience. I dont believe this causes harm in a way to anyone so i personally dont have a problem with it. therefore if i am the target audience, this practice is ethically sound. However if the target audience is rally uncomfortable by the invasive nature the adds coming up on their phone then the practice wouldnt be ethically sound.
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I have definitely noticed that these social media platforms know who your crush is. On something such as Instagram both your likes and story views shows your “most interacted” with people first. In many cases the person that you interact with the most is your crush. The design of social media is to be addictive and showing more posts from your crush would make a user more interactive. This is all explained in the Social Dilemma in depth.I believe that your crush’s posts are manipulated so you see them first in your news feed. This is not okay with me ethically because in most cases social media knows more about myself than I do.
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I definitely think social media platforms know who we have a crush on or have feelings for. Watching those guys in The Social Dilemma documentary manipulate our addiction to phones was good enough for me to believe that they’re continuously trying to keep me connected. These social media platforms are highly addictive. I’m not thrilled about it because they’re manipulating my personal feelings to keep me connected. This is not okay with me ethically because now it seems like my feelings for someone else are for sale.
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The entire concept of pointing a machine learning algorithm at ourselves with the objective of retaining as much attention as possible is an ethical grey area this generation and future generations will be the judge on. From a business view its great, from a capitalist view its great, from a technologists view its great as well. However the act of capturing billions of individuals attention while not being transparent and then selling our attention to the highest bidder is unethical. It’s unethical in the lack of transparency in how our information is being curated. The dishonesty of purpose of how the tool works is clearly unethical. Most individuals assume an unadulterated news feed when scrolling social media. The truth is the information is being filtered for you, not for truth, not for relevance, not for most pressing information, but by its effectiveness at getting you to spend more time on the platform. This filter in pursuit of its goal not only robs you of your time, arguably our most precious and finite resource. It curates information that has been shown to narrow our world views, make us less tolerate of others, make us less tolerate of new information. The filter is not bettering us as a species but narrowing our freedom of information for monetary gain. In short the filtering methods of social media are dishonest, harmful individually, and harmful societally. This created harm is unethical.
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From what I have noticed, is that people I communicate with most on social media, either by direct messaging or liking their posts, is who the app portrays the most to my account. I tend the posts and messages my best friends send or put out first and the most, as I am in communication with them more than I am with other individuals. I do think that it is not ethical to be observed so closely and have our close ones advertised to us and our interests on full display so readily.
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I have noticed that my Instagram has changed so that the people I interact with the most show up a lot more throughout the app. People who I tag in photos will come up first in the stories. People who I comment on their photos will pop up under my search bar. I think this that the algorithm behind these social media platforms are very well done and so force you to see what someone you interact with a lot posts. Ethically I think it is wrong. I don’t feel like I should be observed and my feed changed based off what an algorithm thinks I should be seeing.
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I can’t say much about the questions above because I don’t have social media. But having people you interact with, good and bad, is used as a business tool. Whatever it takes for the user to be more active online the apps will do. Ethically, I think it’s tough to say. After all the people who download and use social media have it to interact with others. What these apps do for the user is makes it easier for them to see what they want to see. With that said I think it’s ethically okay, this is all business for these tech companies. The user above all should know that.
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I can’t speak on behalf of social media since I quit using it some time ago. When I did have it, I didn’t notice people being recommended all that much. What I did notice were targeted advertisements that were specific to my interests. The showing of advertisements is one thing but when I see advertisements regarding products that i’ve searched for, say on a platform like amazon, then I get weirded out. Knowing that my data is being sold is a little disheartening and I indeed find it unethical.
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I can’t say too much on this matter because even though I do have social media accounts, I rarely use them. I definitely believe these platforms know a lot about a person and it worries me. The people running them and the platform themselves know more about us than we do and there is no way to hide it. It freaks me out when all of my advertisements are connected through the different platforms like they are communicating. I don’t think it is unethical because as users, we signed up for this level of analysis and it can’t be undone. It worries me more of what they are capable of if the time arises. For instance, all of your browsing data being sold to the highest bidder. There really is no turning around at this point and it will only get worse.
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Has the person that you’re secretly crushing on become a “nudge tool” on your social media platform? What about the person you’re in a fight with? Do they appear at the top of your news feed because they put themselves there, or because they have been put there so you will stay connected? In other words, can you find evidence of this kind of manipulation…or others, in your “news” feed? Is this ok with you, ethically? Why or why not?
I know when I had a Facebook and added one person from the school, my recommendations for people I may know was everyone from the school. It was interesting to see how Facebook was able to connect so many people based on one person who went to the school. Another weird story about feeds is before class another cadet and I were watching a video on YouTube and commenting out loud about it. Within the next couple of days that same video came up on my YouTube feed which surprised me. These algorithms seem to know a lot about you and it would not be unlikely that they do certain things to “nudge” you.
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Ironically, watching the Social Dilemma was the tipping point for me to take a break from social media. I deleted the majority of my social media apps, only leaving one so that I could still engage with friends across the world. Finding the line between using social media effectively and being consumed has been ever so difficult. As for a specific person appearing in my newsfeed more often, I can’t say I’ve had a personal experience with this manipulation. Quarantine has been a time of independence. I couldn’t even say that I’ve had any special interests in an individual to where an algorithm could try to manipulate my feed. In the case this was to be true, this would not be ethically okay with me. I feel that it should be my decision whether I want to engage with someone’s profile or content.
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The only social media account I have is on Instagram, and while I haven’t posted in nearly two years I still do use the app frequently on my phone. With that being said, I don’t particularly get any news manipulations about a potential crush because I don’t use the app for those kinds of purposes. I do however get a ridiculous amount of curated content that’s specifically targeted at my interests, which I will shamelessly admit is the never ending quest to find funny memes and send them to my friends. I bring this up because I’ll see an enjoyable post from a spam meme account (i.e. less than 100 followers) on the explore page of Instagram, and then when I send it to a group chat with my friends they’ll often have already seen it too on their feeds. What strikes me as odd is that there’s literally millions of posts on the platform per day, so the chances that 4-5 of my friends see the exact same post on their “randomly” generated explore page seems extremely unlikely to me. This is especially weird since the memes I tend to share are isolated and from a small accounts. It’s not like one of those mainstream posts from a large account with tens of millions of followers, I’m talking about the posts from users almost no followers, broken English, terrible image quality, etc. I definitely think it’s questionable how the app both tracks and shows similar content to my friends and me, but at the end of the day it’s to be expected when using any form of social media.
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Social Media has impacted my life greatly over the years, and for the most part I believe it has helped me keep in contact with people over the years. Although, it might have been beneficial never to have contact with them again. My most recent searches are reflected at the top when opening a new search, but I don’t exactly see that as a bad thing. It makes it easier to keep in contact with those you constantly keep in contact with. This can be alarming because constant algorithms are effecting us everyday, in every app. It is beneficial when an ads pops up of an item you wanted, but it can lead you to a path of regret.
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Upon reflecting my own trends with what I choose to look at on social media, compared with the people closest in my life like family and close friends, I can see an apparent correlation or “rabbit hole” of content that moves me farther away from the apparent relationships and bonds in front of me. It’s especially troubling when I further reflect my actions and decisions if this is either through “my own volition” of if I’ve been slightly nudged and manipulated by letting myself be played by profit-driven technical algorithms designed by multi-billion tech giants. While I certainly believe we need to promote harsher accountability on such companies, there should equally be an emphasis on the reliability of information sources like non-partisan, non-governmental organizations and non-biased news outlets. When discussing the ethics of monetizing attention-based tech economies, further regulation of information in the forms of checks and balances, government departments and taxes on band-width as the documentary proposed.
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I have experienced this first hand on my instagram, not just with likes but also stories and suggested friends. If I look someone up who I am not following, they show up in my suggested friends list; I even had one of the officers that I worked with pop up on my suggested feed because I added her name in my contacts (and I have that enabled). Despite this I am not surprised at all, nor terrified. If they find my data interesting, have at it, I dont have much to hide. I am on those platforms to stay connected with people I know, and I am just happy to have connections through there instead of a bulky analog phone book, or something of the sort. If they figure out who I am crushing out, great! Thats not the worst thing in the world. It really isn’t that hard to do given the fact that they have the length of time/number of times accessed for every page.
In terms of if this is ethically correct, its kind of an interesting argument due to these platforms not being public domains. Whenever you sign up for one of these sites you agree to their terms of service, and their collection of data is in that agreement (Facebook Data Policy). In summary, Im not scared, however I understand if someone is; its spooky they have that much access to your life, but in the modern era that is something to be expected.
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I don’t necessarily have an issue with/find it unethical that social media might be tapped in to your interests, the types of ads you’d like to see, people you might be interested in, etc. I agree with Lukas (above) in saying that it’s what I signed up to and agreed to. I use social media to stay connected with people, and I sometimes appreciate the site knowing me so well and exactly what to present to me (although I can see how it’s a little freaky). I’ve definitely felt alarmed and somewhat violated when I’ve spoken about a particular thing with a friend, then all of a sudden ads begin popping up for that thing. I can see why it bothers people and why it could be considered unethical. I think it just depends on who you are, what you use social media for, and what your boundaries on your personal data are.
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I can’t say that I’ve had that specific experience with a person, maybe unless they just post a lot. I’ve definitely experienced it with advertisements, whenever I look up something on google I see it pop into my social media but websites collect that data with cookies so it’s not terribly concerning to me. I do think it would be unethical for social media algorithms to try to force someone on our feed more than other people.
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As someone who doesn’t really spend much time on social media, I think that certain people do become “nudge tools” to say the least. I find that the only time I ever go on to Instagram or Facebook is when I want to check in on a specific friend or old classmate. I think for me it differs on who is at the top of my newsfeed as sometimes it will be a person I searched for recently and other times it will just be a contact in my phone that I haven’t added as a friend yet. I am ok with these “manipulations” to a certain extent. I mean the whole reason I am on these social media is so I can connect with old friends and classmates so if they are searching through my contacts to find more people I might want to connect with then I am alright with it, however, if it goes any farther than that really then I feel as if my privacy has been invaded.
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I have noticed that on snapchat, if there is a specific person I snapchat with or look at their stories a lot, they pop up first in my feed rather then those who I rarely communicate with. It makes sense based on the technology explained in the movie, “The Social Dilemma”. It does not personally bother me because we as the user volunteer all the information that social media has. If people ever get uncomfortable with what is going on it is easy to delete your account/app. I also believe it is easy not to put super private info online.
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I don’t really use social media. I check Instagram about 3x a week to see what friends are up to and to accept friend requests. I do notice that it will put friends before companies (like Red Bull) on the feed. The ads that I see are for things that I’m not interested in and don’t research. When Instagram sends me notifications, I just clear it and ignore them. I don’t care when someone ads to their story or posts something. I’m defiantly not addicted to the apps. I know the risks involved, like them tracking me, when I sign up. I think that with the word getting around through media like the Social Dilemma, and more people are aware with what is going on, it shows that they are fine with it when the remain connected to the sites. Its not hard to stop. Just go outside and find a different hobby.
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I personally don’t use social media that often, thought it was too addicting when Facebook first became popular. The social media accounts I have are snapchat and Facebook. I delete snapchat periodically when I find myself checking it too often out of boredom. However I did notice that snapchat keeps record of people’s stories that I’m more likely to watch and put those on the recent feed, even if they were posted like 10 hours prior. In terms of Facebook, I log in about once ever 4 months or so just to get a quick update. After watching the Social Dilemma I am more aware of these companies tactics and try to refrain from checking social media platforms out of boredom or just habit.
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I personally have noticed that posts from people that I interact with most on social media tend to show up first. I am completely aware that this is some algorithm or line of code that is getting me to engage with the app more. I am ok with this kind of filtering on my social media because it helps me to see the posts that I actually care about, rather than posts from people or accounts that I still like, but I don’t necessarily want to see their posts first in my feed. I think that the technology has progressed and is becoming more personalized, so I see it as an overall plus. Although I see it as a plus, I know that others are not comfortable with their feed being filtered because it means the app is collecting and using data on the users. This is not a big factor for me because I use Instagram as entertainment more so than social media.
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Because my boyfriend doesn’t have social media (with the exception of Snapchat) I Havnt noticed any nudges towards him, however I often get friend suggestions of his ex girlfriend so that’s nice. It’s not totally settling but I can admire their ability to create such a platform that is able to preform these intricate moves. But that’s something I’m willing to accept since I’ve opted to join social media platforms.
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When I use social media the people that mostly pop up in my feed are the ones that I had the most recent interactions with. I think that the algorithm would put said people at the top due to the most recent interactions. I do not think there is anything wrong with that because the algorithm does not know if you had got into a fight with someone. If you do not want to see someone in your feed, social media has given options to block accounts. I have noticed weird experiences with advertisements. Ketchup ads where showing up on my feed while I was in the grocery store in the ketchup aisle. It had freaked me out because I had not recently searched anything up on ketchup on any digital device. I do not think it is ethically right on how some advertisements exploit us to make profit.
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I probably use social media less than the average person, however I have not noticed certain people being presented more prominently on the apps. That being said I have definitely noticed them catch on to what I am interested in. I get adds as well as suggestions of people to “follow” that are impressive recommendations. I think that this is nice in a lot of ways but also kind of scary that a computer knows people as well as their closest friends.
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It is scary the amount of information social media takes from you. I have noticed that my Fiancés stories are the ones to be listed first on Instagram. So yes social media does know who my love is. Then know so by their algorithm that calculates the amount of interaction I have with my fiancés Instagram. On the other hand my stories also come first on her Instagram and we are both aware of this. We have also noticed ads for item we have spoken of in person and not through social media. I don’t think it is okay for Instagram to do this because it is a form of invasion of privacy.
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I have not noticed that on my social media recently, however, back in 2018 when I went through a bad breakup I did notice my ex was popping up a lot in the weeks after. That said in my current relationship I have gotten ads about gluten-free foods since she can’t have any. I believe that it is not ethically okay that these companies do that, however it is known that they will “listen” and go through your contacts to see what has happened and will attempt to push their naratitives through algorythims.
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This has been a conversation topic for a while now. In the recent years of social media, people have been asking, are they watching me through my phone? I don’t go on social media that much but when I do I have noticed that similar names will pop up or be suggested. I have also noticed that it suggests people you may want to follow based off of your profile as well as ads. Customized ads are probably the most prominent form of this “manipulation” that I get. Im not sure how I feel about this occurrence. Overall it is a choice to download social media in the first place. Ethically, I don’t think that it’s right. The people creating the algorithms and collecting the data are aware of the addictiveness. Personalizing ads and suggestions only makes this worse and they won’t stop.
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