You’re pretty internet savvy so you’re aware that when you search for something on Google and see and see a sponsored ad for it on Facebook a few days later that it’s not a coincidence. But are you aware just how much your apps gossip about you? Do you know who is recording the results of that silly quiz you took online? Have you cleared your web browser history…ever?
Online everything relies on algorithms – mathematical equations that tell computer programming where to take you and how to get you there – personalized by individual users (a.k.a. you) to produce information. What you like on Facebook, who your friends are and what they like, and what advertising you click could influence the trending list of articles you get to read every day. Do you make fun of your clueless friend, the one you think lives in a bubble of their own creation? Well, the content you read online could be so finely-filtered that you're living in your own bubble, and you don't even know it. It’s called a filter bubble. Your search history and internet surfing behaviour could influence the Google search results you get.
Same goes for every social media platform and every search tool and every tool you have to use those tools. Cookies help websites help you remember what you did on your last visit, whether to fill in form fields, save your shopping cart, or understand your behaviour as a user. Is living in a filter bubble bad? It’s quite helpful when you’re shopping for clothes or wondering how to change a headlight.
If you consume information via social media platforms only, (or even just a tiny bit), the headlines you see are probably curated based on your own likes, and those of your friends and family. So, not organic results. Perhaps not even real. #FakeNews (stay tuned for that post). We, as humans, tend to focus on what we want, on what we believe, and that’s not the whole picture. Without different perspectives on any given topic we lose sight of what could be. If you don’t know something, you can’t possibly know it. And if you can’t find it, you really can’t know about it.
Who is operating that sponsored ad? Why have they targeted you? Ask yourself these questions before you click. Facebook’s recent press release about the $100,000 USD spent on advertising by 470 “inauthentic accounts” (fakes!) should be a huge wakeup call for all social media users. Likewise, the recent experiment by Buzzfeed demonstrating that it is possible to target advertising based on anti-Semitic keywords, despite the platform’s integrated efforts to prevent that from happening.
Regardless as to whether you think it’s justifiable to target advertising based on someone’s religious or political views, the point is that it can happen. While it’s important to call out such behaviour, it’s equally important to take stock in how these actions directly affect you, your news intake, your shopping habits, and your world education. Consider that a great deal of political campaigning, medical reports, and news in general is consumed online.
There are ways to open up your line of information absorption through actions both online and in person. Start now by recognizing whether your news displays lean towards any one particular side of the conversation, and if everything you’re presented with tends to support your own habits, likes, and beliefs.
We’ve got some great tips for you coming up in this series, but there is more to the story we have to cover so that you have all the facts. Stay tuned!
