I’ve always wondered how someone ends up on my “People You May Know” list on Facebook. Many people I come across here I’ve only met in passing through mutual friends or people who I went to high school with whom I never really interacted with. However, what we’ve learned in this module is that Facebook tracks every piece of data we upload and share to the Internet. When we sync our contact list of people from our phones, Facebook carries that information into its database to try to connect us with other people who may also have that same contact information. And many times, Facebook is connecting us with people we barely even know or don’t know. It thinks we know them because our contact information is possibly stored by the same person or entity. I always ask myself, “How do I know this person?” or “Why is this person being suggested to me?” when looking at my “People You May Know” list. Facebook holds a shadow profile of us that syncs our contact information with others who may possess it, then it syncs their contact information with people they know and then back to us. When we think Facebook doesn’t know much about us, even if we try to hide our posts, our pictures, our friends, and much more, it still possesses everything about who we are. This game of contact chaining that Facebook plays with us can blur the bridge we make between our online self and our in-person self just by suggesting someone who it thinks we may know. But, it isn’t just Facebook! I always get random suggestions on my LinkedIn profile, asking “Do you know [insert name]?” Yes, I do know this person; I worked with them, or I went to school with them. But, I don’t have their contact information saved to my phone; we don’t share the same friends; and we certainly don’t have each other on other social media platforms. The Internet is an interesting place that knows more about us than we are made to believe and never think about.
