By: Corbin Minor
Figure 1
(Photo by Markus Spiske via Unsplash)
Introduction
Did you know that all the data in this blog is being used to generate algorithms to predict what we are going to do in the future? The internet first became available to the public in 1993 with very limited data being produced. In the beginning stages of the internet, very few people knew how to use it which resulted in limited data being processed. As the internet has evolved into what it is today, there are a lot of questions about data privacy concerns.
Using IMC to Gather and Analyze Data Effectively
As an IMC student, this topic is essential to be involved with. When we communicate through the internet, it is being used to “help” predict what our interests are. Have you ever googled something and next thing you know it’s showing up on your timeline on social media? The apps on our phones and our computers communicate with each other to “improve” our overall user interface which is considered to be IoT or Internet of Things.
As an IMC student, it is essential to gather data from consumers to predict what works and what does not. The more data you collect, the higher the security risk becomes. According to Sailm et. al (2022), as the SM- IoT dataset is generating significant volumes of data. There is a need to effectively achieve the principle of privacy preservation for keeping the private data secure. For example, banks and high traffic websites like Amazon are at a high risk for security leaks due to the amount of data being processed through them.
Figure 2
(Photo by Israel Palacio via Unsplash)
Acknowledgement of Social Media and IoT (Internet of Things)
Have you ever felt violated from an advertisement while you were scrolling through social media? I know I have. While scrolling through my personal social media, I have seen hundreds of ads pop up on my screen that interest me in some way. The majority of the ads that are target me have either been something I have Googled or even discussed with my friends. My social media platforms know exactly who I am simply from my interactions online. In today’s time, a countless amount of information is shared by us on the internet. For example, Salim et al. (p.3, 2020) points out how many posts are generated on two of our largest social media platforms:
On Twitter, the popular microblogging platform, comprised of profiles, connections, short messages, and images, 500 million tweets were generated per day and 330 million monthly active users in April 2020. Facebook, the largest general-use SM, has up to 2.6 billion active monthly users in May 2020 and generates petabytes of data per day.
Researchers are actively putting algorithms together to help with the overall user interface on the internet. They are also putting algorithms together to predict how they can sell consumers on a specific item. Even though all of the main social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are extracting data from us, they are also protecting us from terrorism, fraud, and fake news. There are a lot of data stored about us on these platforms, both publicly and privately. Law enforcement can use this information to try and discover, and prevent crime as well as companies use it to sell you products.
It’s essential to utilize and analyze this public information to succeed as an IMC student. We can use these connections to generate higher traffic which could lead to more sales and profitability. It would be negligent as an IMC student to allow these things us to happen without understanding what is going on behind the scenes. Even though it is difficult to completely understand the components of social media and components of IoT, acknowledgement is one of the most important things.
(Photo by Bence Boro via Unsplash)
Communication is Everywhere
Prior to the internet, communication could only happen on a peer-to-peer basis. This means that we would need another human on the other end to communicate back. Now, the internet is able to communicate with us and with itself without any human interaction to tell it to do so. Smart homes are able to detect if we are home or not and will turn off other electronics. Smart cars are now able to tell us where we last parked our car on our mobile device. The end goal for enhancing our overall experience through the internet is to make tasks on a daily basis easier. For example, when we go downtown, our phone knows our location and assumes we might need a ride, so taxi services begin popping up to give us a ride. Or if we are thinking about buying an item, the advertisements start popping up on our social media pages. All of these things are automatically happening whether we like it or not.
Since the internet is getting more technological, it is becoming easier to manipulate the consumers. As IMC students, how do we utilize these features of online communication without being subjects? The younger generation is becoming susceptible to communication practices on the internet. The younger generation (5-18yrs) is easy to manipulate because they are uneducated within the realm of IMC. There is a vast amount of information on the internet that can easily be misinterpreted or manipulated.
Conclusion
The internet as we see it today is vast and continues to grow on a daily basis. Human civilization has been able to study history in order to predict our future. No individual can predict the future of the internet because of the limited history that falls behind it. As IMC students, we must adapt to the fast, evolving forms of communication through the internet to stay on top and not become subjects. Of course, data equals money but at what cost?
Sources
Salim, S., Turnbull, B., & Moustafa N. (2022). Data analytics of social media 3.0: Privacy protection perspectives for integrating social media and Internet of Things (SM-IoT) systems. Ad Hoc Networks, Volume 128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2022.102786
Figure 1
Photo by Markus Spiske via Unsplash
Figure 2
Photo by Israel Palacio via Unsplash
Figure 3
Photo by Bence Boro via Unsplash
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