Finding a Facebook profile I could “borrow” for the week’s
experiment was much more difficult than I thought it would be. My adult sons certainly
did not want their mother peering into their lives and breaking the balance of
what they have created in their carefully structured online social
network. My friends and younger sister
were also not comfortable with the idea for similar reasons. Thankfully,
another sister, Bridgit, was up for the challenge. This was a good fit because
she and I are close in age, and we have similar interests and share mutual
friends.
Bridgit typically looks at her Facebook feed while waiting for
my niece in the school parking lot and also after dinner in the evenings. We
arranged to meet during the evenings to review the experiment’s progress and
discuss the results. Bridgit made sure
to browse through Facebook prior to starting the project to survey the current
state of the environment so we could provide knowledgeable responses in
conclusion.Day one was pretty quiet with nothing out of the ordinary. We scrolled through all the postings and reminisced about family photographs that had been posted previously. Bridgit has a small group of 36 friends so the activity is not by any means bustling. She has 2 teenage girls, loves to cook, and works in the graphic arts industry. She is also helping her daughters look for part-time jobs. These details became quite important as the week progressed.
On the second day we noticed graphic changes by Facebook,
including a larger amount of “suggestions” for my sister than she usually sees.
Bridgit also faced some personal changes as she was forced to communicate
differently than she had become accustomed. A good friend from Austin had
posted about reaching a very important goal after having spent the last year
struggling to lose weight and stop smoking in order to save her own life. She wanted
all her friends and family to see her success, and my sister was devastated over
not being able to respond her friend’s posts and pictures by hitting the LIKE
button. Instead, Bridgit opted to call the friend and congratulate her.
Facebook continued its barrage of suggestions, and we
noticed that they were varied but still somewhat related to Bridgit’s personal
profile: - Car Ads from Subaru promoting the newest features of their cars
- Videos of the importance of the Meningitis Vaccine
- Trackers that would monitor breath patterns
- Job Opportunities from Job Tech, Costco, Medical office recruiters, Ultrasound Techs
- Suggestions of people Bridgit might know
- Images and videos of Athletes winning medals or promoting products
- Contest opportunities to win gift cards to Target and treats from restaurants
- Recommendations to look at Sports pages
- Garage Sale opportunities
- Rental car opportunities
- Video clips of Bridgit’s favorite shows
Changes were evident in the structure of my sister’s
Facebook profile with only the constant bombardment of suggestions being sent. Clearly,
Facebook tracked her hobbies, posts, trends and friends. An outsider looking at Facebook’s suggestions could
make pretty good assumptions about how Bridgit lives her life. Until now, my
sister had never realized the extent to which that was possible, and it made
her a little uncomfortable. Facebook behaved almost like a mother who was
trying to give her child ideas to keep him or her busy. Ultimately, this became
annoying, but it brought me and my sister to giggles.
Throughout the experiment, the power of algorithms became
very clear, and I wanted more detailed information about how they pull from
multiple Social network sites and search engines. The introspective learning was
geared toward how asynchronous versus synchronous communication affects us, as
in posting “like” to someone’s status instead of picking up the phone and
calling them. My sister and I discussed the benefits of both, and in the end I
was thankful that I did not choose to create my own Facebook profile just for
the purpose of this simple experiment. It was actually not so simple, after all!
What we do or do not do on Facebook has a domino effect on several
levels, including emotional, social, and even the impersonal, such as the
bombardment of incoming ads. Maybe the
conspiracy theorists are right. We are being watched, we are being tracked and
very little of our lives are private anymore.
