Social Media "Likes" - Paper Sample

Introduction

Data analytics is a very crucial aspect that is utilized by social media companies to exploit data from their users. In today's technological world, there are billions of people who use social media platforms every day. Most of these users post lots of information about their lives. Many of these users know little about the use of the enormous amounts of data they post online.

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Behavioral Preference

Jennifer Golbeck, a computer scientist, states that social media companies such as Facebook have behavioral preference data for billions of users across the globe (Golbeck, 2014). She further adds that data analytics enables a scientist to create models and patterns using data provided in social media accounts. It is possible for these data experts in social media companies to develop mechanisms that allow them to predict many things regarding a person, such as a gender, sexual orientation, and intelligence. Jennifer gives an example of how liking a thing by one person would reflect and indicate the attributes of other people who have liked it.

Social media companies have adopted a mechanism that allows them to compute users' data based on their likes (Langan, 2018). Jennifer states that these companies' revenue models tend to exploit user's data for their gain. For instance, Facebook users are referred to as the "product." Computer experts study likes in a very advanced way. The reason is these likes increase the ability of social media companies to predict a lot, for example, drug consumption and how well somebody relates to other people (Stevens et al., 2017). The data collected by these companies are used to help businesses know their potential markets and most marketable products. Moreover, data can be shared with businesses that wish to hire the best employees. By reviewing their social media data, they can predict the suitability of those potential employees.

Conclusion

The data collection method is very significant since it allows one to use data to predict the behavior and likes of people. It is also essential in helping solve problems by adopting a helpful data analytic mechanism. In conclusion, data analytics is widely used by social media companies to exploit user data. It is, therefore, important that users are given control of their data. Users should also monitor their social media activity.

Reference

Golbeck, J. (2014). Your Social Media "Likes" Expose More Than You Think. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_golbeck_your_social_media_likes_expose_more_than_you_think?language=zh

Langan, F. E. (2018). Likes and Retweets Can't Save Your Job: Public Employee Privacy, Free Speech, and Social Media. U. St. Thomas LJ, 15, 228.
https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/usthomlj15&div=9&id=&page=

Stevens, R., Gilliard-Matthews, S., Dunaev, J., Woods, M. K., & Brawner, B. M. (2017). The digital hood: Social media use among youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods. New Media & Society, 19(6), 950-967. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1461444815625941.