World Wide [Social] Webwork

This is a difficult subject for me to write about, I’m assuming the feed mentioned in the assignment is supposed to be something along the lines of a Facebook home page kinda deal. Unfortunately I can’t say I use Facebook often enough that I could report any noticeable trends based on what the people I’m connected to post nor what I post myself (since in the latter it’s mostly just my written work for an internship). I do occasionally, out of the corner of my eye, see ads in the upper part of the Facebook feed when I’m changing to another page. Sometimes these ads appear as if they were directed towards my interests, but since I rarely discuss the thing’s I’m interested in with people on Facebook I’d imagine that these ads are actually universally seen by everyone.

Of the other social networks that I’m a part of, I think the most consistent source of contribution is towards Youtube. I tend to use this site to either listen to music (a lot of songs by independent artists aren’t on Spotify, in case you were wondering) or for it’s intended purpose, watch humorous or engaging videos. An analysis could certainly gain insight on my personality based on the subject matter of my viewed content. I have no idea if Youtube’s advertising is targeted, since the ads I get range from something that does look like it drew from my interests (video game or movie trailers, music (hello again Spotify advertisement), etc.) but since some of these are also seemingly random I can’t be certain if it’s actually based on what I do. Also given that I’m not subscribed to anyone nor contact anyone using Youtube I can’t see how what I do there could have any influence on people I’m connected to via other means.

Finally I am also a user of Tumblr, and here may be where my digital influence is more obvious. Basically, for anyone not familiar with tumblr, I am able to share on my blog whatever posts I find based on the blogs I’m following, and in turn people following can also see what I post on their own feed as well. It’s a system that feeds back into itself, since the content you reblog attracts more people with similar interests to your blog, and if you follow them in turn then you’re exposed content of the same nature. Here is where I believe my influence would be more obvious, if I had actual contact with any of the people who follow me on Tumblr (asides from the one person I already know).