8:00am: I got to sleep in today and it was amazing! I start my day with the typical Instagram scroll of doom. Catching up on Stories of friends and influencers that I follow. In between stories I occasionally get ads that I definitely feel are targeted. Yesterday I accidently swiped up on an ad instead of tapping thru, and today I notice that I have seen that ad more than once.
9:00am: I head to ESPN.com to read an article for one of my assignments. I have to keep a reading log for 20 days. In a normal day I would not be on this website or care about anything that’s happening in the sports world. However, now that I am doing this, I have noticed that I am getting a lot more sports content than I have before. The thing that sticks out to me here though, is that I am on my laptop reading these articles, yet the new ads and suggested content I’m receiving is through apps on my phone.
2:00pm: Lunch break! This time instead of my typical social media scroll, I go through my emails to find a confirmation email. I am planning a Disneyland Trip for my daughter and I and couldn’t remember which hotel I booked. Since I was browsing hotels the day before I am now getting some Disney specific sites advertised with some great deals! So, I change those reservations stat! If I had more time, I would clean up these junk emails…but that will have to wait for another time.
6:00pm: I clock off from work and start my drive home. Todays driving entertainment is Spotify. Today is an episode of Armchair Expert with their guest Tyler Perry. Because I’m listening on Spotify, there are ads included with this podcast. These aren’t targeted ads but typically paid promotions for the hosts. Dax Shepard can be heard saying “this podcast is brought to you by (insert company they are promoting). But now I’m curious about Spotify’s privacy policy and decide to look it up : https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/privacy-policy/
Today was a lighter day for me when it comes to media usage. But it still opened my eyes to how much information we really do send out into the world. When I think about all the junk emails I have, I only have them because at some point I signed up and gave them my email. I’m now also going to approach apps and other media differently and read the privacy policies and see exactly where my information is going.
I knew that social media sites talked to each other, especially Facebook and Instagram, but it still kind of blows my mind how synced it is. I clicked on one ad for a Beach waver curling iron, and now I see that ad show up on all my social media. I am definitely changing my privacy settings on all apps right now!
Leave a Reply