I just finished a book called Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection by Jacob Silverman.
I read books like this as often as I can find them because this is an
area where my personal and professional interests intersect. My library school degree is actually a MA in
Information Studies, and my personal interest is tied to the fact that I am an
avid consumer of digital information, and a somewhat skeptical user of social
media .
My initial reaction, after only the first
chapter, was to abandon social media altogether. So I put down the book and
deactivated my Facebook account – knowing even as I did so that it would be
temporary. Within an hour, my mother (who is not on Facebook) called to ask me
why I hadn’t updated her about a family member’s health condition, which had
been mentioned on Facebook. I gently reminded her about all the reasons
(excuses) I have for not remembering that sort of thing (work, stress, being the daughter of my
father) and sort of implied that if she felt she was entitled to that
information, maybe she should create her own account. And then, feeling guilty,
I reactivated mine.
However, there are many reasons I do intend
to maintain my social media accounts. I have friends and family all over the
world and I like seeing their photos and updates and getting mini-glimpses into
their lives. I like the filtering options on Instagram that allow me to take
pictures of my dog and edit the image so that her adorableness resolves on the
screen instead of appearing like a blacked-out, dog-shaped hole.
And I do this for professional reasons.
Because “everyone else does it” and I work in a job that requires knowing and
understanding everything I can about meeting the informational needs of our
customers. And maintaining a searchable
web presence is, in itself, evidence of technical capabilities that future
employers might require.
So, I’m not going to give up social media –
and that isn’t what this book is trying to achieve. Instead, it’s just raising
awareness of the personal and commercial effects of a society intent on
documenting, preserving, promoting, and sharing its private life.
If you want to know about all the ways
social media can negatively affect a person individually, there’s a wealth of
information out there (including this book). There are also a lot of resources
about protecting your online reputation, or increasing your social status,
attracting more followers or friends etc.
The reason I’m writing this is because of a
key point of which I wasn’t fully aware and I think it’s worth pointing out.
Most social media sites have embedded
widgets across the internet to enable what Facebook calls “frictionless sharing,”
which means I can hit a like or a heart or +1 button and share whatever I’m looking at with
my friends and followers (in fact, after I post this blog, I’m going to hit
that button to share it with you).
Sharing this information serves two
purposes. The most obvious is that I can easily share something I’ve created,
or discovered and found interesting or funny or meaningful. It says to my group
of friends “Hey! This is cool” or “This is what I believe” or “This is
weird/outrageous/unacceptable.” “This!”
gives you, my friend, a little more insight into me – as a person. And if you
agree, you’ll like it too and validate me. And if you don’t like it, you’ll
disagree and we’ll have a conversation, or you’ll roll your eyes, or at worst,
you’ll block me, or something. Whatever
…
But the second role this “frictionless
sharing” plays is that each click of a button adds another data point into a
file that is kept about me, my interests, preferences, personal beliefs &
biases – and that information is then used (and often sold to interested third
parties) to target me for specific advertising campaigns, or to filter what
displays in my various feeds. If I like a post a friend has shared about an
underdog presidential candidate, I’ll start seeing more posts like that. And if
I get tired of seeing videos about dogs, I can click a button in Facebook and
say “Show me less about this” and then Facebook will know I hate dogs. Everything
I like or ignore or even hover the mouse over but decide not to click is
registered by these sites and then fed into algorithms that determine the content
I see every day.
And what I click on could then be used,
along with my profile picture, to promote an advertisement that shows up in
your feed. When you see a post that refers to something I liked, (it could be a
mutual friend’s status update or a band or a business), the information is
presented in a frame as an insight into my personality, when it’s actually being
used as an endorsed advertisement.
I’m not saying this is inherently bad – but
people need to be aware that by engaging in these posts by clicking, liking,
sharing etc. you are doing more than showing approval or insight to your
friends, you are also participating in widespread market research. These social
media sites and third party business and corporations are capitalizing on what
used to be one of the most reliable and valued forms of local advertising –
“word of mouth.” Think about it – when we’re looking for a mechanic, or a
hairstylist, or a lawyer, we ask our friends first… and often, their
endorsement means even more than a 5 star review by an anonymous or
unknown person.
I’ve always known that what I “like” on
Facebook (or external sites) displays to
my friends, and I try to be selective about what I click – because my relatively
small group of friends is actually very diverse. It includes family members,
friends from kindergarten and college, and former, current and potential
coworkers … not to mention people I actually want to impress. This is why my
social media activity is limited almost entirely to self-deprecating jokes and
pictures of my dog (who I hate*).
I recognize that many people use their
social media accounts to actively promote political ideologies, spread
awareness of important civil rights issues, affirm religious and spiritual
beliefs, or to seek support and validation in times of emotional crises. This
is one of the more positive features of social media – the fact that it allows
people to form communities and support networks across a broader spectrum than
they might find locally or in real life.
The point I'm trying to make (and the point of this excellent book) is that we
need to keep in mind that while we’re sharing our lives and likes with each
other, we are freely contributing to a data collection system that uses the
information we share in ways we may never have intended. And we need to be
aware that the information and advertisements displayed in our feeds and
sidebars, especially that which appears to have been endorsed by our friends,
is an unreliable and incomplete representation of our interests and
personalities. Just like everything else we see or say on the Internet.
(*I don't actually hate dogs. Except for this one:)
