Response to “We’re Building a Dystopia Just to Make People Click on Ads”

I generally really enjoy Ted Talks. I feel like they can take dense topics and turn them into a level-headed speech. In taking such heavy information and turning it into a well structured speech, it allows the brain to process the information in a more appropriate and clear manner. There is always some sort of fact that I learn, and I always walk away from them with some sort of enlightenment. Zeynep Tufekci gives the Ted Talk, We’re Building a Dystopia Just to Make People Click on Ads, and it is no exception to the terms listed above.

There were two topics regarding social medias that Tufekci elaborated on that really caught my interest.

First, she touches on the topic of technology being able to read your mental state. This may seem terrifying, but it gets worse when she addresses how companies use this to their advantage. When a human is enduring a manic episode, they tend to have a more impulsive mindset. Advertising companies will then use this mental decline (in their audience) to show them items they would be interested in (perhaps from a previous search result), because they know that their intended customer is more likely to buy these items. It has been proven that during these manic episodes, the patients are more likely to be spending their money like wildfire, without any second thoughts. Regret is said to only set in after their purchase has been completed and their manic episode has subsided. A perfect audience to buy product.

I almost feel like this should be illegal? I also feel like it is absolutely disgusting that they are able to survey a human in order to make this discovery. This shows that these companies do not care about their consumers wellbeing, and instead only care about their profits.

The second point that caught my eye was that of YouTube using customers watch histories to bring them deeper down the rabbit hole in the hopes of bringing the viewer further into using their website. Tufekci states that the more controversial and graphic the content, the more users are willing to come back to see this. YouTube will start their users off with mild videos, and gradually draw them in by getting more and more controversial. For example, Tufekci states that her job led her to YouTube videos of Trump rallies in order to study the behaviors of attendees. After she watched a few of these videos, suddenly she was recommended (by YouTube) videos in relation to white supremacy. As she went about her searches, these videos got more graphic, and this is a tactic to then bring the users further into the website.

This is also one of the terrifying realities of the internet and its marketing schemes. The fact that companies are treating humans like test subjects is disgusting. I can’t believe the information they are able to achieve just from our general search history and activity. It really makes you think twice on even getting on the internet.