Portfolio # 4

After reading the articles about platforms, algorithms, and surveillance capitalism, I learned a lot. It said in Naughton’s reading “The switch to mobile brought a sudden increase in corporate power.” Since platforms were created, industries now have more power to help advertisers find information that each user likes. Platforms keep advancing which allows advertisers to see what interests people by what they like, share, research and do on these platforms. I learned that every click on a social media platform is another benefit for companies and advertisers. If we weren’t using social media, advertising companies wouldn’t know what my interests are. There was another quote that I liked from the reading, “In this arrangement, the company provides free services in return for unlimited access to users’ personal information and data trails, which are then refined, packaged and sold to advertisers” (Naughton). Talking about surveillance capitalism, companies make their platforms free because they now have the access to track and follow everything user’s do. This allows companies to share their gathered information with advertisers to promote things each specific user likes. All this information comes together because of algorithms.

This relates to my own social media use because what I see on my new feeds are only things I have interest in. Since I am active on social media, advertisers can track what I like and only promote the things I like. This makes using social media interesting because most of the time, I never see things that don’t grasp my interest.

My key word is information. Considering “discursive work”, I feel like my word is the definition of it. I say this because in Gillespie’s reading, he didn’t have a specific definition for it but what my professor wrote in class was “he refers to it by saying “the ways that companies strategically speak, talk, or communicate about themselves” (Gillespie, Professor Weber). Looking at that definition, I feel like my key word, information does exactly that. Information allows people to speak, talk, and communication efficiently. Without information people wouldn’t have much to talk about nor would they have facts or proof to support what they are saying. I think my keyword would overlook the possibility of people believing everything they see on social media platforms. Since information is everywhere, and social media is free and accessible, people tend to believe everything they see without doing a little bit of research. Social media allows people to put out information that can be false and not a lot of people will take the time to find the truth before sharing it.