Big Brother is Watching

Picture this: you are on your lunch break and you're having a conversation with an associate about buying a new jacket. They recommend a certain brand to you and send you a link to the store via Facebook Messenger. Hours later, you're pulling out your phone to browse social media, and what do you see? Dozens of ads for jackets. Facebook and other social media platforms have immense value for creating connections with others, and bridging social divides. However, it should come as no surprise that the information you share on Facebook, ubiquitous or not, can be weaponized against you without you even realizing it. Big brother has been, and probably still is, watching your every move.


During the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama had social media strategists engage in a new tactic to help secure the election. The strategy was this: they would look through users' Facebook profiles, comparing demographics, to find the states that had the highest probability of responding positively to their campaign message. Through that information they focused their maximum campaign and advertising efforts on these states (Borah, 2016; Carlisle & Patton, 2013). On the surface this seems maybe a touch shady, but generally fine. No one's data was actually touched. They used public information to help shape their message and their campaign (Borah, 2016; Carlisle & Patton, 2013; Vaccari, 2010).

However, I believe that this set a precedent for a gross abuse of power and invasion of privacy leading up to, and during, the 2016 presidential election. It was revealed that Donald Trump hired Cambridge Analytica to "mine data" on potential voters; learn how they think and learn how they vote (Cadwalladr & Grahm-Harrison, 2018; Isaak & Hanna, 2018). The goal being: if I understand my enemy, I know how to get them on my side. With the data they were mining they specifically put out targeted ads, ones that didn't show up for some people, but certainly showed up for others  (Amer & Noujaim, 2019; Cadwalladr & Grahm-Harrison, 2018; Isaak & Hanna, 2018). The ads were often "attacking" the opposition, ignoring their candidates' own shortcomings, and highlighting the small pieces of just action done by their candidate  (Amer & Noujaim, 2019; Cadwalladr & Grahm-Harrison, 2018; Isaak & Hanna, 2018). They were preying upon people's susecptibility to be influenced, and the power that social media has to help shape opinions and actions (Amer & Noujaim, 2019; Cadwalladr & Grahm-Harrison, 2018; Isaak & Hanna, 2018). This is not to say that the people who voted for Trump wouldn't have if they did not see these ads. Rather, Cambridge Analytica essentially shaped these peoples' world perspective, morphing it into one that leaves their candidate in the winner's chair  (Amer & Noujaim, 2019).

Your social media consumption should be ubiquitous, you're right, but the problem lies in the fact that we are being influenced by people when we do not even realize it. When it comes time to vote in 2020, take a step back and view your social media use from an outsider's perspective. Sure you may see information that supports X candidate and condemns Y candidate on your feed and that may match your reasoning and political leanings. However, because we know these messages are being shaped to warp our own opinions, do not take these advertisements as purely objective. Acknowledge that your data and trends on media platforms are seen and that there are people that are watching every single post you make, every single picture you post, and using this information to force you into buying a narrative without your consent.

Information is power, and I hope this is an encouragement to do research, be active, be vigilant in your data consumption, and always look for confirmation that what you are seeing is valid. Not only looking for "fake news" but also reports that are sensationalized one way or another. In the words of one of my favorite alien hunters "the truth is out there," the powers that be are trying to warp it and shift it, and it is our job to find it out.

Here is a website I trust for fact checking the information you see on social:
Politifact

As far as reputable news sources here are some I encourage you to at the very least compare the ads you are seeing to:
PBS, NPR, Wall Street Journal, BBC

Works Cited:

Amer, K., Noujaim, J., Dreyfous, G., Kos, P., Korin, J.. (Producers), & Amer, K., Noujaim, J. (Directors). (2019). The Great Hack [Motion Picture]. United States: Netflix.

Cadwalladr, C., & Graham-Harrison, E. (2018, March 17). Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election

Carlisle, J. E., & Patton, R. C. (2013). Is social media changing how we understand political engagement? An analysis of Facebook and the 2008 Presidential Election. Political Research Quarterly, 66(4), 883–895. doi: 10.1177/1065912913482758

Vaccari, C. (2010) “Technology Is a Commodity”: The Internet in the 2008
United States Presidential Election, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 7(4), 318-339,
DOI: 10.1080/19331681003656664

Borah, P. (2016) Political Facebook use: Campaign strategies used in
2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 13(4), 326-338,
DOI: 10.1080/19331681.2016.1163519