Portfolio Assignment #4

This week’s articles relating to platforms, algorithms, and surveillance capitalism were nothing short of eye-opening as they provided valuable insight into the inner workings of the tech giants that are a huge part of my life. The various concepts Talerton Gillespie explored surrounding the term platform and its use within the tech world was fascinating since he spoke about how companies often times use clients as stepping stones in order to elevate their technologies. Since companies are reusing assets from various projects to create new platforms there is a clear copy and paste aspect to a lot of platforms we use. A prime example of this is Facebook and how they blatantly stole the stories feature of Snapchat and at first integrated it into its Messenger app, then once the platform was proven to work, they moved the features into Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp. Having nearly the same exact feature be present in multiple apps is something that has impacted people worldwide including me. Having one of the main features of Snapchat be available on a more popular app like Instagram has prompted millions to ditch Snapchat and whilst I have not stopped using the app completely, I really only use it for the chat option and have stopped posting stories for a while. When it comes to surveillance capitalism the concepts spoken within the article “The new surveillance capitalism” did not shock me as much considering the Facebook documentary, we watched a few weeks back. Whilst the idea of just a handful of companies controlling a large majority of the world's data at first might sound Orwellian in reality it is quite obvious when you think about it. On an almost daily basis, I receive notifications from google maps asking me to review places that I have visited, for google to ask me to rate a place they would have to know my location, the time I spent there, and a bunch of other data. In reality, that handful of companies know my whole persona from the food I like to my sleep schedule, heck they probably know me better than I know myself. Despite the intense level data collection that is occurring every time I open any app; I will not change my habits since sadly I have become too dependent on these few companies to provide me with information and entertainment. Something that I do believe in is having the ability to erase your presence from the internet and start from scratch since there have been a lot of things that people have done in the past that have come back to haunt them later on. I personally know of a lot of people who posted dumb things when they were young that do not reflect who they are now, yet that information is and will probably always be linked to them. Programs like ‘Right to be Forgotten” have the right idea but I think the concept can be pushed to a whole new level I even believe that companies should not be able to store data on people before the age of 18 this way people have matured to a certain point before, they are able to tarnish or even ruin their lives online.

My keyword meme has a complex background, but the definition and use it has garnered within the last decade especially has led to discursive work being done by the term. The term meme itself has garnered a mostly comedic association with most people dubbing any relatable and amusing image a meme. A meme is also not limited to just images since viral trends like that of “Gangnam Style” were considered memes by the general public. The vagueness that comes with such an umbrella term like meme or platform has truly diluted the meaning of the term itself. When people are quick to dub something a meme it can often damage the intended meaning of that thing be it a dance move or a catchy song. A prime example of this is Rick Astley's song “Never Gonna Give You Up” which has become one of the biggest memes worldwide. The song was out for decades before it transitions into being a meme and when it did it was no longer fully recognized for being a decent pop song instead it was now something completely different. The cost of becoming a popular meme seems to a loss in a piece of media’s intended message. When terms that do not have a solid meaning are popularized and used in place of ones that have only 1 or 2 strict definitions, often society finds itself creating loose boundaries for such terms. A term like a meme, in reality, will continue to grow in popularity and in the near future, it might be hard to distinguish the difference between a popular piece of media and a meme. I believe that there is a time and place for terms that have no set meaning but for society to grow there has to be some level of specificity.