Are They Tracking Me?

When it comes to advertisements on social media, it can reveal how the companies that own those platforms view the user. Every time you search for something, or like a post that someone made, or watch videos, the advertisers collect that information, which then ends up creating your “advertising identity”. This can sometimes be helpful when you are looking for a certain item on your social media platforms. But it can be creepy too.

As someone who is on social media a lot, it does not take long for the advertisers to create an “advertising identity” for me. When it comes to social media, I notice that the ads that appear are accurate to me and that this is how the advertisers see me as a user. For example, after I’m done looking at either the clothes, jewelry, or tattoo ideas, I end up getting ads about that, or even notifications on my phone about what I was looking at on that app. This becomes very helpful when I get notifications on something that I’m waiting for to go on sale or come out with new colors. While these ads are accurate, it does become a little creepy with how fast they appear on my phone. While these are interests that I have, it does not fully describe the person I am outside of social media.

My “real identity” outside of social media is more than what appears on my phone. Outside of social media, I am a person who loves hanging out with my family and friends, and thinking about my future and how I am going to achieve it. The advertisements that appear on my phone can not understand my personality or my values because they are only focused on what I look at online. While my advertisements know the hobbies I like, it doesn’t know the relationships that I have with the people around me, and how I value others in my life. Social media is one way to give a simplified version of someone based on what they click on. But it can’t identify who you truly are outside of these platforms.

There are times where I have ads appear that are completely different than who I am. Sometimes I see ads for random products that I would never buy or look at. There have been times where I have been showing a family member how to do something, and I used my phone for it, and then the next day, I would get ads for that. After that happened, it made me realize that social media apps are so quick to make assumptions about their users. This is something that creeps me out about social media, because they are so fast to put an advertisement up when you have only looked at one thing about that topic.

Overall, while some advertisements may be accurate to the person I am, they do not fully know the type of person I am outside of social media. When it comes to comparing your “advertising identity” and your “real identity” it is clear that there is a difference between the two. While social media may track your every move for what you click on, and get to know the type of person you are, it can not see the type of person you are when you’re offline.

“80’s style Hacker Picture” by dustball is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

“Hacker Rene” by Mr. Cacahuate is licensed under CC BY 2.0.