The Hidden Dangers of a Status Update
When you scroll through your news feed on facebook, what do you see? Seemingly pointless status updates? "Just baked brownies","Can't wait to see the Hunger Games movie", or "Craving a diet coke". We all notice them, we all role our eyes but hardly anyone knows how these simple updates help advertisers profile you and decide exactly what suggestions and advertisements to bombard you with. But even this may seem harmless-even if a little ominous-but what people are putting online is preventing some from being hired or winning a case. Posting about a troubled relationship or going from "in a relationship" to "It's complicated" may bring up links to quizzes which pride themselves on being able to determine if you're being cheated on. Facebook may seem private but it is really just opening your personal life up for the world to analyze and target.
Comments
Dear Marie Deininger: I
Dear Marie Deininger:
I enjoyed your post, “The Hidden Dangers of a Status Update," because it has outlined things people probably do not think about when writing personal information on social networks.
One sentence you wrote that stands out for me is: " We all notice them, we all role our eyes but hardly anyone knows how these simple updates help advertisers profile you and decide exactly what suggestions and advertisements to bombard you with." I think this is valid because I don’t even know how advertises do so and I use to write whatever I wanted on Facebook and didn’t care who saw.
Another sentence that I found interesting was: "Facebook may seem private but it is really just opening your personal life up for the world to analyze and target." This stood out for me because I find it to be true. If someone is being considered for an important job that person who is hiring will search through your background and it is possible said person can see those embarrassing updates you’ve posted so long ago. People don’t think it matters until it blows up in their face.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next, because you write well and know what you were speaking about.