Blog Post #5

One Click Away From a Fully Customized Feed 

This week in class we discussed how basically everything that we click on is tracked. That information then is sold that eventually generates into ads. I knew that they tracked all of our clicks, but not down to the small things. There was a variety of ads that were pushed to me via Google. Things that I didn't even remember searching; but there were plenty of ad recommendations that stated otherwise. With all of these moving parts I wonder if Google knows that I am onto them... 

I wanted to bring up the idea of my Instagram feed. I don't follow too many people; however, it seems as if I am constantly missing certain individuals posts. Instead, my feed will include a lot of interests or ads. Specifically when I look at the stories. I question how Instagram decides to put the Kardashians stories before my own family. 

I do personally think that there is a benefit to the pushed feed and that Google keeps so much track of this information. I think that with this high level of tracking, it can actually push things to the user that could be beneficial. For example, I used to work for a company that did interior design. For a huge portion of my day I would be researching on Google all sorts of items like tile, paint colors, lighting, carpet samples, etc. Eventually almost any feed that I would access I would find ads pertaining to any of those items listed above. At one point, my Instagram and Google knew the exact styles that I was interested in and it was an easy find. On the other hand, when I moved into my new house and I was looking at buying a new couch, I cannot express how annoying it was to scroll through my feed and only see ads about couches. These ads would even pop up after I bought my couch. 

With ads and the tracked information I do understand how hesitant some people can be with this idea. However, I think that even without technology or the heavy tracking that pertains to technological use today, somehow I do believe that our information would still be tracked. This way just seems so personal because we are always using our phones for everything without thinking of who else is seeing it and selling that information.