Pop Culture, Privacy, and the Lollipop

Today in class we discussed the influence of our personal information towards advertising and media logic. Media logic is important to understand because it seeps into our everyday lives without us even recognizing it and without us analyzing it's disguise. We learn our "normals" from media logic and advertisements, so it's an important thing to recognize. I feel that the most alarming form of advertising that strongly uses media logic lies in the Facebook advertisements that use your personal information to personalize your advertisements.

Facebook's advertisements are alarming because they are just that; a little too personal. I feel that the extraction and manipulation of my information that I choose to share over Facebook is downright creepy. One website gets a hold

of my information, and that website shares it with another website that shares it with another website and then with another. The following website is the website that I mentioned during class today. (see www.takethislollipop.com)



No, a creepy guy is probably not stalking you at this moment, but what you have to be aware of is the fact that there are companies that CAN access just as much information as you can about yourself by logging onto Facebook. Take This Lollipop did. So you think your profile is just for your friends? Think again. Each and every time you give your information away, you are signing away your rights to privacy on Facebook.

I find this alarming not because I'm paranoid, but because I don't trust people I don't know. Would you walk up to a stranger on the street and just write down your hometown, mobile phone number, the names of your parents, siblings best friends and more? Probably not. Would you tell that stranger that you're "Going to Starbucks on 116th tonight with the besties!! (:"? No. We recognize that, as Zooey Dechanel put it in New Girl, "Stranger danger is real", but we don't recognize that stranger danger exists on the internet also.

I know many people who are deleting their Facebook for this reason. My boyfriend deleted his Facebook partly for this reason after graduating from high school. He did not want to share his personal information. Have you ever googled yourself? I have, and my profile picture, some status updates, twitter, and other information was available for strangers to use at their disposal. When you google someone who doesn't participate in social media, almost nothing comes up.

The moral of the story? Use Facebook wisely. Do you really want a single old man in his 50s staring at pictures of you and your friends on Spring Break? Just the same, do you really want advertising companies to analyze you to target you? Remember, you have the ability to share what you want. Use Facebook, but use it smart.

Katy