You, for sale to the highest bidder.


Yes, you. 

Like most people with internet access, you've probably been building multiple social media profiles for the past several years. An account that logs all the pages and posts that you "like," who your friends are, and what your interests are. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, and others of the sort, collect your personal information, and sell that information to advertising companies. It's been that way for years and it is only going to get worse.

That sounds illegal, right? It isn't though. In no way is it an invasion of your privacy. No company is peering through your bedroom window to see what you do. You tell them what you're doing, every time you log on and post something. It's because it is your own voluntary decision to post on these social media sites, that these companies assume consent and sell your information. In the fine print of the privacy policy on each social media outlet, it states that whatever you post, like, share, and put in your profile, can be shared with advertising companies to target ads at you. That's why it's "free" to use these electronic social mediums. Because in reality, you're selling yourself to advertising companies, so they can target ads at you, where you will likely end up buying something because of one of those ads. 

Ads are everywhere. On TV, radio, internet, billboards, events, school, work, home, literally everywhere. The only time I'm not constantly seeing ads, is while I'm sleeping. They're a huge part of our modern existence. Hell, I'm a marketing major. I plan on advertising for the rest of my life. It's something that will probably never go away, it's just a matter of keeping up with the constantly changing ways of advertising. The excessive amount of ads we see may get annoying, but it could be worse. At least it's not in our heads. 

In the book Feed by MT Anderson, Titus, his girlfriend Violet, and about 70% of Americans, have a "feed" chip implanted into their brain, giving them access to the internet straight into their thoughts. The feed is controlled by corporations, just as our internet is today. The largest issue with that though, is that the feed is then naturally flooded with advertisements. The feed is also very interactive with advertising, just as the internet is today. "We went into the store, and immediately our feeds were all completely Bebrekker & Karl. We were bannered with all this crazy high-tech fun stuff they sold there" (Anderson 98). As soon as Titus and Violet walked into the store, their brains got pumped full of ads. Similar to the way I'm pumping this blog post with ads, except significantly more annoying. As annoying as the ads are here on the post, try imagining it constantly buzzing in the back of your head, getting more focused and more intense depending on your location and thoughts.

The difference is, is that Violet brought Titus to the store, so she could work on messing with the feed. The entire point of her shopping trip, was to ask questions about products she had no intention in buying, so the feed would build the wrong individual profile for her. It's her as an individual, fighting against these huge corporations. Her tiny "attacks" on the feed's version of her, are a losing battle. Although it may throw the feed off course, she's still the one stuck with all these new false ads that mean nothing to her, being pumped into her head.

Violet is making her best effort to resist. It's a very subtile effort, but it's a safe, easy, and almost fun way for them, to explore the knowledge held behind each product they know they have no intention of buying. But in the end, it made very little difference. Violet does not offset the amount of ads she was receiving, she simply changed what they were about. The corporations were still advertising, only Violet as an individual was able to bring herself to resist the feed, and at least understand that what the corporations were doing, although legal, is morally wrong. Just as today, corporations are paying big money to get analyzed results of market consumers profiles, and then flooding their lives full of advertisements. Although it is legal for them to do, and even though it has become a major part of our society before we realized, similar to what happened in Feed, is it time to look at the morality of modern marketing?

-Nick M (754)

Works Cited:

Anderson, M. T. Feed. London: Walker , 2002. Print.

 LaFrance, Adrienne. "Facebook Is Expanding the Way It Tracks You and Your Data." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 12 June 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

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