After searching myself on the first four suggested databases, I was relived to find very little information on myself. I found hardly any information on the first four suggesting links on the LIS201 blog, I found absolutely nothing Googling myself, and my social media sites would hardly tell the viewer anything. My Facebook page has a lot of privacy settings turned on so I wasn't able to view any of my personal information, my Twitter and Instagram accounts however were unblocked so people could view who I followed to figure out my interests. Based on who I follow and the pictures I have presented online, I think a geodemographic firm would assume that I am a: UW-Madison badger's fan, enjoy landscape & scenery, baby animals, music, food, getting married and pregnancies.
Most of the information is accurate; however, I am definitely not engaged or expecting a baby. I enjoy looking at cute babies and pretty wedding dresses so I am guessing the social media algorithms are putting that into consideration and assume that I am a pregnant expecting mother. I get emails from websites and see a lot of wedding and baby advertising on my social media walls. I think that in my case, the "shadow body" affect is in action but in a different context. They are emphasizing the aspects of the few aspects of my life they can find because the more important and accurate information is either on privacy settings or not included online. In this case, the results of my personal online dossier are not completely accurate and are lacking in many areas.
It is strange how complex/accurate algorithms can be when they can also be so wrong, as in the case of your baby/wedding situation. I agree with you when you say that the "shadow body affect" is present in your situation, as it seems to me that these algorithms/websites are taking any information that they can find about you (and everyone else) and incorporating it because it is all they have. That definitely raises the question of how accurate algorithms are and how to make them work better for each individual.
ReplyDeleteI think it is strange that you found so little information on yourself in the first four links because I found so much information. I also think I may turn my twitter to private now, considering none of your twitter information popped up, and I don't like how everyone can just see my tweets and what pictures I've posted. It's funny how the algorithms assumes you were an expecting mother. That just shows you how algorithms are not always as accurate as they hope to be.
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