How Advertising is Affecting Our Social Media Experience

You are scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and suddenly you’re hit
with an advertisement so enticing that you simply have to click on it.  In the golden age of
technology, it is no coincidence that every ad you see seems to be specifically tailored to
attract you. We have to come to terms with the fact that although social media is intended as
a means of entertainment, it can quickly become a shopping experience as well.

How Free to Use Platforms Make Money
Have you ever wondered how the companies behind platforms such as Instagram,
Snapchat, and Facebook have become so wildly successful by offering the public a program
that costs no money to use?  The unsettling answer is that these companies collect data on
their users and sell access to your profile to third parties, allowing these third parties to
create targeted advertisements on individuals and place them conveniently on your feed. 
Almost all of their revenue production comes from exchanges in data and advertisements,
meaning that for users, part of the price of receiving a free service is sacrificing your right to
privacy. Although personal information is protected by privacy policies, information about
your preferences and what you may be interested in are all open to be bought, making the
ads you see specific to you yourself and more likely to be appealing and tempting for you to
click on.  

Targeted Advertisements
The ability to access information on what people search, look at, and like on social media
platforms is incredibly valuable for companies trying to sell a product.  With technological
advancements, companies can guess with high accuracy the exact advertisements that
individuals are most likely to click on, which is why so many are willing to pay social media
companies exorbitant amounts of money for this data.  As a result, a person’s social media
experience is drastically changing. In the past, everyone expected to log on and be
entertained by looking at their friends’ posts or news stories or comedic posts, but now with
the technology to create targeted ads, people go on social media expecting to see
something they want to buy, and it can even lead to a shopping experience.  Rather than
having to search for what you want to buy on the internet, what you want to buy comes to
you through social media instead.

Getting Sucked In
Nobody can say they have never clicked on an ad before.  Although the thought of ads on
our social media feeds does bother us and although we may not want them there, we are all
guilty of seeing an advertisement so enticing that we at the very least click on it, if not
actually go through and buy it.  Personally, I have bought sneakers and athletic shorts as a
direct result of targeted advertising on Instagram. I saw something that I wanted badly, and I
decided to go through with it and purchase the item. Understanding that this is simply a part
of what social media has become is important.  Although you can complain plenty about the
advertisements and invasions of privacy, would it truly be worth having to pay monthly
subscriptions to social media platforms as an alternative? 

Written by Nick Giordano