Last week Facebook revealed that they are experimenting with what they can discover by studying our friend networks, (syracuse/news/index.ssf/2013/10/facebook_predict_relationships_breakups_cornell_study.html). By mapping the massive number of accounts and their connections, they can not only correctly predict who your spouse/significant other 60% of the time, but it turns out that the other 40% of the time when this failed, it was actually an indication that the relationship would most likely not last. This raises the question, what else will they be able to predict from this and other social information they own? Will Facebook eventually be in the business of predicting the future? Not as far fetched as you think considering its already being done on Twitter, (blog.bufferapp/6-incredible-examples-of-how-twitter-predicts-the-future). Social media is a gold mine of information because weve become a people addicted to sharing our opinions. Social media makes it easy. No need to invest in publishing, enter debates, wait your turn to speak or even a need to engage those who disagree with you... not to mention how easy it is. One or two clicks most of the time. Im not casting aspersions, Im as guilty as anyone. But I started paying attention to how much I read (listen) vs. how much I post (say) and I realized I dont really listen on social media at all and I doubt many others do either, (as a test I throw in a little experiment below.) Social media is not existing on our desire to learn, but our desire to speak. This is why I dont believe the value of social media outlets is truly in their ability to get our eyeballs to watch an adds inspire us to empty our over fattened wallets into some corporate pocket. It would never work because we dont look at the ads, we dont read most of the posts we like and we certainly dont give a shit about the next guys opinion on, well... anything! My prediction is that society will soon shift and we will become much more guarded. Especially if these predictive abilities are used against us, which looks highly likely considering how at least one major defense contractor and security firm, Raytheon, says they have developed a ...system to gather data on people from social networks, blogs and other sources to identify whether they might be a security risk. (smh.au/digital-life/consumer-security/google-for-spies-draws-ire-from-rights-groups-20130211-2e75y.html#ixzz2kTHfkLdy) This, of course, would cause a direct backlash against the entire concept of social media and render the predictive tools useless. Its a catch 22 on their part because in this area, our participation is clearly required for our demise. Want to test my earlier opinion? If you actually read this far, post something in the comments. Doesnt matter what, but in your comment include one of the ingredients in a BLT sandwich. This will puzzle people who only read the headline and also might prove me wrong if this actually gets read much.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 22:22:52 +0000
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