#languageandnewmedia

[soyunposts-blog]

CAUTION: EYES’re doing MORE than just watching!

Dear users

Holiday’s coming! Haven’t you planned for it yet? Why don’t you go abroad and experience a whole new world? Let yourself be in dazzling moments and unbelievable sights. You DESERVE it.

Planning for the trip, HOWEVER, is often annoying. You are bound to book a flight and search for accommodation to stay. And as you know, it’s absolutely annoying to compare every product by yourself.

In this case, what if someone who knows you well(maybe better than your mom does) recommends certain products that would be PERFECT for you? I can do this. I can predict what you want by collecting a pile of private data of you from a full range of apps in your phone. It’s a hassle for me but I can do this just for you. It’s comfortable and simple. All you have to do is just sit on the bed and click the ad links that I provide you. Just enjoy your holiday!

Best Wishes,

Facebook

How would you feel if you got this message from Facebook, one of the most beloved and trustworthy social media? It sounds tempting, doesn’t it? However, if you take a closer look, you will discover something creepy and tricky, what I made as bold.

Have you ever seen sponsored ads on your Facebook or Instagram news feed? If you don’t want it, you can hide the ad by tapping the menu on the top right corner of the sponsored post, and then choosing Hide This. Then the other ads will show up, anyway. There are various kinds of ads in general but think about a certain moment when you plan a holiday trip to Scotland. You’ve recently been going over Skyscanner, a travel fare aggregator website, and then you would see the sponsored ads related to Scotland travel on your news feed. You didn’t tell Facebook or Instagram you’re going to Scotland. You were browsing only Skyscanner, not those apps. But they already know before informed. Look at the image below, explaining this mechanism to Instagram users.

It collects your personal data from your app usage pattern such as liking, following, what information you see, and so on. And it is not just from Instagram itself but also from “third-party sites and apps.” Who knows what these sites and apps are? It is creepy to know anonymous “stalkers” have kept eyes on you. Of course, they’re not totally anonymous since Facebook or Instagram must inform its users that it uses their private data, not to violate Privacy Law. But who cares about the Privacy Policy written with tiny fonts? Signing in Facebook leads automatically to agreeing to its Privacy Policy.

Plus, there’s even a service called Facebook Connect. When you sign in some sites, you might see the option saying “Log in with Facebook.“ like the image below. It’s from Skyscanner, I mentioned before. It seems absolutely convenient because there’s no need to write down your personal information every time you sign in different sites.

In addition, it turned out that Facebook was sent private information from several popular apps even without users’ consent. These apps include Skyscanner and even religious applications. Religious behaviors are considered to be one of the most private parts of life but Facebook is tracking these behavioral data as well.

As you see, people nowadays are under Surveillance Capitalism. Zuboff(2015) asserts that “this new form of information capitalism aims to predict and modify human behavior as a means to produce revenue and market control.” Private human behavior turns into behavioral data, with which huge online platforms like Facebook and Google predict users’ future interest or transaction. This data is about its users, but the users don’t own it. It belongs to online platforms and their partners. They can generate huge profit out of this private information.

Some users may say that the fact that they use our data is not a big deal because people can also benefit from the personalized service provided. But people obviously know that they must not be deprived of liberty they gained by overthrowing the monarchy. It is horrible to live in a society like one described in George Orwell’s novel 『1984』 published in 1949. If so, why not with privacy?  Human private data is a significant element of liberty. 

Moreover, there’s another issue as well. Let’s move again on to Instagram Ads policy and focus on the underlined phrase below.

What ads are INTERESTING? What are RELEVANT to you? In fact, Facebook or Instagram is the one who DECIDES what is interesting and relevant to you. They have all this right to present what you see. According to Agenda-Setting Theory(Griffin, Ledbetter, & Parks, 2015), what you see can affect what you think about and what you think is important. The media “may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”(Cohen, 1963)

It doesn’t have to be a serious political or gender issue. The power of those EYES on you is related to every aspect of your life to some extent. For instance, if you are frequently exposed to sponsored ads and posts saying all your colleges are working out these days, you might happen to take it into account to buy workout equipment like yoga matt or running shoes. This makes it certain that Surveillance Capitalism can predict and even modify your behavior.

Creepy, isn’t it? Do you still think those eyes on you are just watching you? Do you still think that it’s just convenient to let Facebook collect your private data? It’s time to be aware of its threat.

References:

Cohen, B. C. (1963). The press and foreign policy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.                      

Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A., & Parks, G. (2015). A first look at communication theory (9th ed.). New York, NY.

Zuboff, S. (2015). Big other: Surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. Journal of Information Technology, 30, 75–89.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6783409/Facebook-tracking-people-dont-ACCOUNT.html\

[soyunposts-blog]

Excuse me, let me offend you

If you search for any Instagram of celebrities and see the comments on their posts, it is not difficult to find rude comments and even curses. The arguments between haters and fans are also common on Instagram. There’s no rest for people with many followers. Those haters, leaving the impolite comments, are aware that they’re offending somebody and even intentionally do so to let them shame.

Why do people do so? The comments are a response to what users believe to be a violation of sets of expectations and norms which form these users’ moral values. The foundation of morality can be different among people and situations like the chart below.

For example, here’s a rude comment on Kardashian’s post.

She uploaded a picture of her closet full of fancy items and a hater left a comment saying “There are people on the street and starving and you show off your closet.” From the perspective of the hater, popular celebrities like her must take responsibility to care about the poor. If they don’t, they deserve taking offense! It’s quite unacceptable but the haters think like this. On the other hand, there are many rude comments that don’t seem related to moral value. For instance, here are the comments on Instagram of Sophia Hadjipanteli, a model with unique eyebrows. 

She has embraced her monobrow to challenge stereotypes and break beauty standards which are set on women. She hopes to be an example for people who try to stay true to who they are. She even gets a lot of death threats because of her eyebrows. Unbelievable, but it’s true. It is so unacceptable for haters to look the way she does that it infuriates them to the point where they have to threaten in her life.

Every time she uploads her selfie on Instagram, the haters leave rude comments blaming her for being a unibrow model. It seems that they don’t have any moral reason(or excuse) for blaming her. But there is. From their perspective, being a model is such a holy ground for a “beautiful” person. Of course, Sophia being a model is not acceptable for them. That’s why they keep ridiculing her with impolite comments.

But she never let them be rude on her Instagram. She sometimes comments back the rude comments and makes them feel shame.

There are so many different moral values online. You might think that protecting your morality is important. However, don’t forget to protect it to the extent of protecting human right and freedom. 

[soyunposts-blog]

What makes you watch ‘Mukbang’?

Digital Communication is a complex of various modes. This distinct characteristic is called multimodality, which means the use of multiple semiotic modes, such as visual, aural, spoken and written modes, in a text to create meaning. People now commit themselves to more multimodal communication rather than just reading texts. And here’s an interesting trend that stands out as the newest multimodal content: Mukbang. This trend has been spreading rapidly and it is easy to see those videos on Youtube. 

PewDiePie, a male Youtuber with the most subscribers around the world, filmed Mukbang as well. He explained that Mukbang “is basically people shoving food in their face for 30-40 minutes. It’s like an ASMR but fxxkin repulsive.” The term came out of Korean word “Mukneun Bangsong”(eating broadcast). As its meaning, it shows people eating. But it’s not the main point of Mukbang. The viewers don’t just see eating. They hear it. This is why every Mukbang Youtuber has the high-end microphones with extremely clear sound. This can be considered to be kind of ASMR but it differs in that it focuses on both visual and aural aspects.

People in the digital age seems to be somehow redesigned as a different creature from the past. We keep pursuing multimodal stimulus that can make us satisfied. Mukbang was very weird and when it first showed up, but it is not now. Therefore, there will be more multimodal contents showing up as we need more.

[ben-smith]

Getting caught in your own bubble

The evolution of technology has always been seen as a wonderful thing. The creation of super-fast broadband and clever search engines, such as Yahoo, or Google Chrome have changed the way people live their lives. So often I’ll hear someone say, ‘google it’, in response to them being posed with a question. This leads me to ask, is the internet really as beneficial as we think?

It is clear to see that the internet has begun to have an insane effect on our day to day lives. The Deloitte Mobile Consumer report showed that almost half of people aged between 18 and 25 years old checked their phones immediately after waking up in the morning. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it is similar to routinely checking the morning paper, as news can be accessed on phones. It does show, however, how reliant we, as young people are becoming on smart phones. Our dependence on smart phones, and more specifically, social media and other web based programmes, is silently converting us into  one minded individuals. Here’s why:

 Social media pages and search engines monitor what we listen to, what we watch, and what we like and dislike. The very notion of being watched 24/7 whilst we surf the web is rather disturbing. But to make it worse, website algorithms personalise website and news feeds to best suit your interests.  For example, if two different people were to do a simple google search of the same thing, it is very likely that the first page of results would look different, due to algorithms personalising the page. 

Facebook now monitor what posts we like and dislike, and who we interact with most. Our news feeds are then tailored to best suit what we WANT to see. 

For example, at first, I could see a variety of opinions, some of which I did not agree with, and so I did not ‘like’ them. Slowly, these opinions began to disappear from my feed, until it was only my own shared opinions showing up.

My point is, that putting what we see into the hands of website algorithms creates a sense of single-mindedness, and won’t give us both sides of the story.