Bridging the Gap Between Social Media and Advertisement by Accessing How Audiences Are Targeted

Quinton Miller, MDST 485 Communicating with New Media, Public Relations Major, Metropolitan State University

January 22nd, 2021

This scholarly journal keys in on the increasing popularity of CBD products. Through algorithms set for identifying certain words, this passage explains the analysis taking place surrounding the conversation concerning attitudes towards cannabinoid (CBD) and its purpose. Terms including anxiety, stress or nausea were identified as indicators for therapeutic necessities. This could help with uncovering what language companies who sell these types of products would use in their advertisements going forward. It may also provide insight into a drug policy that needs revision for places that do not allow it due to the products legality based on those first hand accounts documented from forums. This includes Cannabinol/CBD, hemp oil and Cannabis. There are pieces of qualitative data from these findings which is what some new age advertising services utilize. Not only does this tie into the cannabis sector of public relations in new media through explanation of a methodology professionals can use on social media platforms, this academic journal is relevant to us as citizens. When using social media, we often find advertisements geared towards something we’ve recently posted, viewed or talked about. The algorithm, similar to a control F function in a word document, gives an example of how our data is utilized in studies. Once we, as users of these platforms, think outside the box and consider other ways our words are used, we can conduct other research as to how social media and advertisements have played hand-in-hand.

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Does this remind us of anyone who whistle blew about this in the past?

This news article was originally written in the beginning of 2018 and revised in October of 2020. This article includes a video experiment of a couple conversing about cat food to see if ads would begin to appear in relation to their conversation. They concluded that facebook had been listening for keywords in their conversations due to the fact that cat food advertisements begun appearing days later. These readings seem distant on the surface, but with a little critical analysis in the mindset of media communication, people can bridge the gap between an obvious new age of targeting methods and terminology. Both articles involve keywords instead of age groups. All users of either the forum or social media who used certain words were taken into account. Each of these had different ways and different purposes, but they could relate to the ways companies use new media to gather and target data on potential consumers.

Take a look below and try it out for yourself !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0SOxb_Lfps

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A post shared by Edward Snowden (@theofficialedwardsnowden)

Of course this isn’t the real Edward Snowden’s instagram. (I doubt we’ll see the real Snowden on social media). This is a instagram fanpage dedicated to the man who informed the world of what the NSA had been doing.

Narcity Media, October 2020, Why You Keep Getting Ads For Things You’ve Talked About But Haven’t Searched Up Online https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.narcity.com/amp/why-you-keep-getting-ads-for-things-youve-talked-about-but-havent-searched-up-online

International Journal of Drug Policy Vol. 77, Mar 2020, Social Media Surveillance for Perceived Therapeutic Effects of Cannabinol (CBD) Products https://www-sciencedirect-com.mtrproxy.mnpals.net/science/article/pii/S0955395920300293

#deletefacebook & “1984”

In my last blog, I talked about the current state of social media, while referencing recent events such as the Parkland mass shootings, as well as our class reading, “Social Media is Bullshit?” I came to the conclusion that social media isn’t “bullshit”, and that it’s simply a tool. And as with all tools, it can be used for good or bad.

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about social media being used…again as a bad tool. #deletefacebook is a current campaign to, as the hashtag states, delete the Facebook application from our lives. The reason for this action against Facebook is because the company shared peoples info with other entities, some harmless and some harmful.

Personally, I find it ironic and humorous that people are punishing a company for sharing info that individuals are freely sharing. We are at a crossroads as a society, and at some point we’ll have to make a decision whether or not to exist in complete transparent lives.

Do you remember the George Orwell novel, “1984”? The book is set in a fictional province of the superstate Oceania, whose citizens are victims of ongoing war, omnipresent government surveillance, and public manipulation. Even though it was published in 1949, the troubling societal themes reverberate today. This novel seems to be a prescient reflection of the current and future state of social interaction.

So what is the end game? There’s so much access to people, their information…almost everything with the right resources. I think we need to look to the mechanisms that are ultimately behind all of this.

Stay tuned for the next blog where I discuss the future of social media and humanity’s downfall.

Social Media’s Influence on Human Interaction

I’m sure if you are reading this that you use some form of social media.  It’s everywhere you look. Social media is a fixture in our lives in the United States. The internet and social media are so embedded in our daily life that it dominates our language. It’s also starting to influence the way we interact with one another.  Social media sites are supposed to bring people together but sadly it seems to be ripping us apart. My goal is to shed light on the issues surrounding interaction via social media and a few simple techniques to mitigate toxic behavior on the internet.

The political climate of the United States is quite turbulent to say the very least.  Everyone has a platform to express their views on the internet without a filter. Our echo chambers are becoming cauldrons of toxicity and it’s changing the way humans interact with one another. It seems as though we are not capable of engaging in debates of any sort without it dissolving into insults, personal attacks and even violence.

How bad is it, really? Well, according to Chamath Palihapitya, former vice-president of user growth at Facebook, claims that social media sites like Facebook are creating “tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”. What a terrifying thought.  We are supposed to be more connected than ever but we seem to be disconnecting ourselves from one another.

So what do we do? An article written by John Coate, dating all the way back to 1998 covers many steps to maintain an online community. In his article he discusses free speech. I think many of us in the United States take that right for granted.  Our online communities are derailing into silence brigades.  Individuals with opposing view points are expected to hate one another.  These tools of social media are creating online communities that have no chance to incubate thought provoking dialog between two parties.  Coate goes on to explain in the same section covering free speech that public online interactions should be moderated to ensure that the online community is preserved. However, Facebook has no official moderator. There are guidelines Facebook follows to delete or censor content but it is not a transparent process nor does it ensure a healthy interaction between two parties online. I think the solution to this divisive pattern of social media is to use Facebook less and use other moderated forums such as Reddit.com or Sputnik.org.  It would be foolish to say drama and divisive actions do not occur on other social media sites. However, taking into consideration what Chamath Palihapitya has disclosed about what Facebook is doing to our society, we do not have any other choice but to change our actions to ensure we progress as a society.

 

Social Media in the sneaker world.

I’m a sneakerhead. Some of you may have noticed, some of you may not have. It’s an expensive world to be in, but a passion. Social media is a big deal when it comes to shoes. To be very honest with you, I can’t go a day without some sort of interaction with my sneaker updates. With this being said, the world that I am involved in has changed throughout the years, due to the rise of social media usage. One thing that Facebook has really brought up are sneaker groups, where people have access to sales/trades of shoes. Social networking leads to actual networking, therefore creating relationships. This is an important aspect of the sneaker world because of the change in the sneaker game. You can’t get a pair of Air Jordans these days without putting in work to secure yourself a pair!

One group in particular is MSX or Midwest Sneaker Xchange, which is a large sneaker exchange group, with many members (including myself) primarily from the Midwest region of the United States. They’ve held 5 different events, helping people meet up and exchange/sell sneakers, meet people and create relationships. Take a look below at one of the recaps from one of the shows they had. This is a show I actually went to in Milwaukee, WI back in February, and I can say that it was awesome!

Midwest Sneaker Xchange February 15th, 2014 Show

Like I said above, you need to put in some sort of work in order to even secure a pair of sneakers for yourself. Welcome the RSVP service for retail Nike Stores, via direct messages on Twitter! To be perfectly honest with you, I never thought i’d need a Twitter account. For this sole (no pun intended) reason, I HAD to get one. Whenever a very hyped pair of shoes are going to be released, Nike usually has an RSVP service, in which your local Nike Store has to receive an RSVP from you on Twitter. Once they tweet a picture of a hashtag, you need to respond to them by sending a direct message to them with the hashtag circled in the picture, your name and size. IF they received your message, they will confirm that you have a spot in line and they will hold the shoes for you on release day. CLICK HERE for a full explanation on Nike’s website for RSVP instructions. This past weekend, I won my first ever spot in line, as you can see below. These spots aren’t easy to win (as you can see my other RSVP attempts weren’t responded to) because you have thousands of others trying to do the same thing as you! You can say I got lucky. 

These are just a few things that happens in the sneaker world on social media. There are many notable online blogs that follow releases and news, such as NiceKicks, Kicksonfire, & Sneakernews. Obviously there are more, but those three are my favorite. Also, there are online raffles where you can buy tickets to try and win shoes, Instagram image reposts to try to win sneakers, sneaker promotion through instagram, etc. The new ways of networking and promotion are endless with this world! Beforehand, you could walk into a footlocker and buy a pair no problem. These days, you need special resources to be able to buy a pair! These social media platforms have taken over and will continue to rule this world if you ask me. Many people haven’t been exposed to these types of things and wouldn’t even think it existed! It is truly a powerhouse in the social media world and will definitely be like this for a long time. 

A Mother Against Social Media

In today’s world it is important to keep children in touch with technology. Just this year, my niece and nephew brought home iPads and are expected to read and do homework on a daily basis from a screen rather than a book. They even have assignments where they have to research on the internet work on interactive calendars and assignments. These assignments are made possible because of the enhancement of the internet to Web 2.0 and introduce the interaction and collaboration that also enhance social media.

In a post where a mother feels that Facebook is overtaking her daughter’s life and that she has lost all of her friends.  Does she know what her child does while at school and how much they interact there? How about being on Facebook and talking to her friends through chat or messaging? Just because they are not together does not mean that she does not have friends or is not conversing with them on their Facebook walls?

Social Media can positively impact a child’s mental growth. Research by Pediatrics and an article, point out that there are benefits such as collaborating on projects, staying connected with others, and contributing to charity work that is done by children and teenagers that use social media.

I understand that some mothers feel that their children spend far too much time on social media such as Facebook or Twitter but when the World Wide Web introduced version 2.0, it expanded the market to include far more interaction between users of any age.  Instead of placing blame that Facebook is ruining a childs life, embrace the fact that this is part of a childs development in today’s world. With email, blogs, Facebook, and all of the other types of online communication possible, children should be able to participate. I am not saying that it needs to overtake their lives or that children should be vulnerable to information that is not age appropriate, but it is enviable that children will need to use social media. There is even a show on television show on the Disney network, entitled Dog with a Blog, where a family dog writes daily about family values in his own blog following each episode. Not all social media is bad and because someone uses social media it does not mean that their lives are ruined. Instead, if this mother could understand the benefits it might enlighten her …. Ironically, this mother turned to the web to post her concerns, why shouldn’t her own daughter?

Why is Everybody Worried About Their Privacy When They’re All on Facebook?

So, I admit it… I am not on Facebook. I have no desire to be on Facebook, and I am aware that I may be missing out on a ton of cool things, but I just can’t do it. That’s just the way it is.

I am one of only about a handful of people that I know that doesn’t have a Facebook account. Anytime I meet another person who is in my same position, there is usually a high five, a head nod, or we both immediately shout out an excited list of reasons why we choose not to be on Facebook. It’s a special bond, like we’re part of our own network that will probably not hear from each other again for several months… or ever.  

Now don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Facebook or people who are on it. It has done amazing things for our world. It has connected millions of people across the globe in a way that was not possible before. Its easier to stay in touch with old friends or relatives. Musicians have used it as a way to collaborate with other artist or reach out to a larger fan-base.  It has been used as a tool to organize the masses and spread social awareness of many issues. Businesses and non-profit organizations are able to connect with their audiences and listen to what they are asking for. Facebook really is amazing. So why am I resisting it so much?

Well, the short answer that I give people is… privacy.  I don’t like Facebook because I feel like people expose too much of their lives on it. I know it all depends on how you use social media of any kind, but think about what the average person has on their Facebook page. How well can you get to know someone by their Facebook page?

Look at your Facebook page, do you have any of these on them?

• Your name
• Your age
• Your relationship status
• Where you live
• Where you went/go to school
• Where you work
• Pictures of yourself, friends, or family
• Pictures of your last vacation
• Pictures of yourself at a party (maybe a little tipsy)
• Conversations with other people who are also on Facebook
• Your phone number ( I know it seems crazy but some people do)

I know that posting any of these things onto Facebook is optional. But if you don’t post pictures or have conversations, what fun is it?  And YES, I know that you can set privacy settings so your grandma doesn’t see the pictures of you at Mardi Gras from last year, but I am still amazed that so many people are willing to put so much of their life online. Even if a person “doesn’t have anything to hide”, does that mean that you need to expose yourself like this?

Again, I have nothing against Facebook or its users. Most of the people I know are on it and are constantly trying to convince me to get on it. As of June 2013, Facebook claims to have 1.15 billion users, so it must be pretty cool. But for me, especially during a time where the NSA has become a household name and our government is being accused of spying on its own people and people from around the world, I still think I rather not have one.

For more information on Facebook privacy and general privacy on the web, check out these links…

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/10/07/privacy-facebook-google/2935383/

Phonebloks – A phone worth keeping

The idea Phonebloks presents is a great alternative concept for a piece of technology almost everyone in the western world makes use of on a daily basis. It’s true that a vast majority of our technologies aren’t made to last. Is this more a problem of cost or simply the perpetual motion of the ever advancing technological field?

How I see it, any piece of technology is outdated after two years anyways. If you use it for more than Facebook and email that is.  How would it be any different with this phone? The components would be constantly become outdated, meaning people would be in constant a “keeping up with the Jones’s” mentality. Ultimately this would cause just as much, if not more electronic waste overtime. Because people always want the newest toy.

In theory this would eliminate the competitive drive companies have to best one another. Now is that truly a good thing, or would it simply create yet another monopoly holding conglomerate. In the video the idea is present that different companies would make their own specific bloks for public purchase, but in the world of business there is always the giants who run the market. For example– would people simply buy certain components because they contain the Apple logo because they’re considered reputable now? Lastly how would operating systems work/be doled out, and how would actually get control over the “app market”?

Though Phonebloks has a good idea/concept I don’t feel it would ever work in reality, nor with the current way capitalism and the western world choose to conduct business. Just like any other campaign they blow the positives out of proportions, and skirt the negatives.