It has recently come to light that Facebook uses its non-paying user data to help target advertising for its paying customers. I always wondered how a company that provides a free social network to billions of people managed to become the richest entity on the planet ... now I know! Just like "free" TV, Facebook runs paid advertisements. Unlike "free" TV, however, Facebook's ads are targeted with laser-like precision to those most susceptible to their influence. If people are willing to pay billions of dollars a year to Facebook to do this for them, then it must be worth the money or they would quit paying the fees.
While we could survive without toilet paper, it's high on everyone's list of necessities. We all use it; we all need it; it's only a matter of what brand we prefer. The battle for toilet paper supremacy is a tug of war over the buyers of an essential staple. In general, these sorts of ads are mostly harmless.
However, beyond basic survival needs, like food and water, there is a cornucopia of things on which to spend our money. Fifty years ago, the average American was exposed to as many as 500 ads a day in newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, billboards, bus benches, movies, and more. These were all passively received, of course, as the reader/viewer/listener had no immediate way to interact with the advertisements.
Today, the exposure number is somewhere north of 4,000 ads a day. So many, in fact, that we are typically oblivious to ninety-nine percent of them and are only drawn to the captivating one percent that goes viral. Amusing, shocking, unbelievable, outrageous ... it takes a lot to grab someone's attention, nowadays. But, unlike fifty years ago, it's now followed up with a click or a tap that provides the originator with confirmation that you are interested. And, if you are logged into some sort of social media framework at the time, the originator will know who you are and what other items you have clicked on in the past.
Your click-profile is analyzed and grouped with similar profiles that are then offered to potential and existing advertisers. The more you click, the more you help to refine this profile. A marketing firm may not know your on-line identity, but it won't matter because the social network will deliver their ads directly to you for a nominal fee. And a nominal fee times 2.2 billion users clicking on ads generates a pretty healthy revenue stream, indeed.
So, if clicking some video causes your friends to do the same and their friends to check it out, etc., any idea can spread like a virus throughout the social networks. Does it really matter if it's true or not as long as it caused you to pause, click, and share? Is it really Facebook's fault that everyone is doing the same thing? And that click-bait is so pervasive throughout all of the news and social media?
The next time you buy a phone that you don't need, or book a resort vacation in some trendy hideaway, or buy a new washer and dryer because the old ones weren't WiFi friendly, remember that the choices you are making were planted there by advertisements. Whether it's Facebook or some other media, there is a clear distinction between what you need and what you might want. Knowing the difference can help to sort out the mostly harmless ads from all of the others.
Don't let the Internet tell you what to think!
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