Anyone who uses social media may have noticed that our feed and related videos are not what they used to be. We can also notice, oddly enough, that sales ads related to the material we were just checking out are included in our feed. Also, not only SNS but also content distribution companies, such as Netflix and YouTube, always find ways to know what we want. However, many people overlook these facts and expose information about themselves online. From personal information, such as photos, texts, and personal data, to personal preferences, such as music and video preferences, a wide variety of information is leaked through social networking sites (SNS). Most people just do what they want on SNS.
Given this reality, people who used to develop social media systems and establish strategies are now questioning whether what they thought was right.
To summarize an interview in the Netflix original documentary ‘Social Dilemma,’ which is a related material, large companies that operate social media platforms have been building artificial intelligence (AI) models that understand us better than we do by analyzing every individual’s behavior online with a supercomputer. In other words, it means that the AI knows what our personalities are like, how we feel, and what we want to do next, just from our online actions.
The problem here is that those large IT companies that use and process our various information to operate SNS turn individuals into a single product. Personal information that has been commercialized, without our knowledge, is sold to numerous companies, giving them enormous wealth. What should be looked at more deeply is that their sophisticated algorithms induce individuals to take specific actions, such as purchasing a product. As a result, it can be assumed that having the capability to change our lives can also be a matter of time.
In a highly developed civilization, our lives are moving according to the recommendations of algorithms that understand us so well. The original purpose of SNS is not to be loved by many people as a medium but to move people. On the contrary, it is the business place of many people who want to keep people closer or within reach. In other words, the problem is not the place where people gather but the business model and system that runs the place. From the standpoint of a business, it may be a good profit model. However, it should not be overlooked that proper judgment should always be up to the individual.
Reference list
LEE, JE WON (2019). 한국과 중국 소비자들의 소셜미디어 사용에 관한 태도 연구. Journal of Distribution and Management Research, 22(4), pp.69–80.
Lee, G. and Park, J. (2018). The Influence of SNS Use Motivation on SNS Addiction. The Korean Journal of Advertising and Public Relations, 20(3), pp.301–326.
Li, G., Park, E.-M. and Jin, S.-J. (2019). The impacts of personal traits on knowledge discovery behaviors via mobile SNS. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 1(12).
Netflix (2020). The Social Dilemma | Netflix. Netflix. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57tcci0.
