Who Would've Guessed?

Taken from Sodahead.com

Response to TED Talks 

How can something as simple as “liking” curly fries on social media be predictive? This is a very interesting question and is what Jennifer Golbeck addresses in her episode of TED Talks, “The Curly Fry Conundrum: Why Social Media “Likes” Say More Than You Might Think”. 

Now-a-days we live for the Internet and social media. It is the first thing we check when we wake up in the morning, when we get home from work, and right before we go to bed. Everyone gets caught up in clicking on links or pictures that appeal to them, and online shopping, it’s crazy how easy and convenient the Internet makes that. We share a lot of information on social media, but it turns out we don’t actually realize just how much we are sharing. It’s kind of a scary concept to think about. Information gathered from our profiles or Internet searches can reveal secrets we never intended to share. 

In Golbeck’s presentation she tells a story about a 15-year-old girl who was sent advertisements and coupons, from Target, for baby bottles, diapers, and cribs, two weeks before she told her parents she was pregnant. Target knew this girl was pregnant even before she told her parents because of her online purchase history. It might not seem like this would reveal a lot, but it does. Patterns of behavior reveal insights that leads scientists to certain inferences.
This particular story both amazes me and frightens me. The fact the clicking on random items can lead scientists to make inferences about us, scares me. It scares me even more that they can infer completely inaccurate information about us. It almost seems like we are constantly being stalked. I knew the Internet was a dangerous place, but I never knew to what extent.


If we have an important secret that we don’t want anyone to know, we would be better of telling it to our loud mouth friend, rather than posting it anywhere on the Internet. Do you agree?