Social Media Analytics and Mental Health

While the ability to access social media analytics is obviously very useful for companies and researchers alike, I have to wonder what the effect is on the average user. It seems like social media is a constant numbers game, always pushing people to produce more and more content for free and obsess over how well it does. When I first joined social media, I started largely on Tumblr. One of the quirks of the platform is that your number of followers is hidden from public view. Only you really know how large your audience is, although anybody can see hints of it based on the average number of interactions your posts get and other signs like that. Eventually Tumblr fell out of favor when it banned adult content and I moved to Twitter along with many other users. On Twitter, your follower count is displayed prominently under your bio and available for everyone to see. It's no longer something you can hide at all. I think this causes a lot of people to take it pretty seriously and probably isn't great for mental health.

Another thing I've seen on Twitter that just feels unhealthy are external sites that will track things like how many people have unfollowed you in the last week. While this is probably very helpful for companies to gauge their social media success, I've mostly seen it used by average people who check it obsessively and seem to base their self-worth on keeping followers. It's especially common with young teenagers who treat unfollowing someone like a personal betrayal. That's definitely not healthy behavior.

These sort of tools are really useful for researchers and I can see why they should be available to the public, but social media isn't designed to help mental health. It's designed to attract as many users as possible and keep them scrolling so they can see ads. The addition of numbers to gauge how well their posts are doing in a very tangible way really just reinforces how unhealthy it can be sometimes.

Facebook and Data Profiles

It seems as though every time Facebook makes an update to their Terms of Service, new stories pop up about what the new or changed features do to change your experience with the site -- and what new ways the site is adding to the overstuffed folder of data it has collected about you. These pieces seem to show up every few months, and not without legitimate concern: Facebook has the ability to collect a really thorough profile on someone using the site, from religious and political views, to hobbies and interests, to geotagged check ins at various locals, to years worth of photos. With Facebook's ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp as well, those profiles become even more complete. Factor in the number of websites using Facebook's API for third party site account creation (you know, when you have the opportunity to either type in your email and a unique, secure password or just click the Facebook button and gain access to the website immediately by logging in with your Facebook credentials instead?) and the profiles become even more layered.
Wired.com published a piece by David Nield in January 2020 about this particular phenomenon. One of the neat features of this piece was how David highlighted ways to see what kind of advertising-specific profile Facebook has for you. I easily lost twenty minutes scrolling through, laughing at the mismatches and feeling a little exposed from the direct hits. Interestingly, he also noted that a lot of the tools that Facebook has rolled out in the name of controlling who has access to your data do not do anything to erase the profile that Facebook already has of you, or to even stop Facebook from gathering more data. These tools are all about how ads are targeted at you. So with these tools engaged, posting pictures of your newborn might not get you quite as many advertisements for the latest and greatest in diaper technology, but that does not mean that Facebook's profile of you has not carefully noted the new addition to your family -- it just does not specifically send ads for Pampers your way.
Even using Facebook's mobile apps can spell bad news for your privacy. These apps, such as the primary Facebook app, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, receive information about what Wi-Fi networks you connect to, the type of phone you use, other apps you have downloaded, and more (Nield).
If completely removing yourself from all of these websites (and all third-party websites that use the Facebook API for account creation, tracking statistics and more) is a little unrealistic, there are some measures you can take to reduce the amount of data gathered in the future. In the settings for all three apps, be sure to turn off or disconnect every feature or tool that you can related to advertising or 'improving your experience'. Remove applications from your phone and limit mobile use to only within the mobile web browser whenever possible. On desktop sites, choose a browser with robust privacy features and turn off any features that remember your data for later. Skip the geolocation check-ins, sketchy third-party quizzes and tagged photos, and become a social media lurker instead of sharing the play-by-play of your day. To go even more robust, you can add a VPN, or virtual private network, into the mix to shield your location data. It's difficult to remove yourself from Facebook's long reach of data collection should you become wary, but these practices a good idea even beyond its reach to ensure data safety and privacy.

Social Media Analytics

A few years ago, it was common to think that a social media position in a company was held by some unpaid intern. Nowadays “social media manager” is recognized as a real, often difficult job. “Why would a company care about how it looks on Twitter or Facebook? It can’t be that hard, just give the passwords to the kid here for school,” people would think. Even now, on occasion I’ll hear someone talk about companies’ social medias as if it’s run by interns. Obviously, that’s not the case.

 

Social media analytics is basically public relations and brand management, updated. The purpose is to see what people say about your company, what they’re seeing by your company, and how the posts are being received. Most social media websites offer ways in-site to track analytics. Twitter, for example, allows you to “view tweet activity” on tweets sent out by your account. It’ll show you the total engagements (times people saw the tweet on twitter), total engagements (times people interacted with the tweet), likes, detail expands, profile clicks (times people clicked on the account’s name, @handle, or profile picture), retweets, replies, and link clicks. If a tweet did not receive any of these values, it is not shown. So, if a tweet has a hundred likes but no retweets, it will show the amount of likes but not mention retweets. Twitter also allows for paid promotions.

 

Besides in-site analytics, there are plenty of websites and services that provide analytics for you. Hootsuite is one such website. A paid service, Hootsuite is an advertising and analytics website. It allows you to publish (share and schedule engaging content to your profiles), engage (address incoming messages and deliver timely replies), monitor (stay informed about market trends and competitors), advertise (promote your organic content and manage paid ads), and analyze (measure your results across all social media networks). Hootsuite is integrated into over twenty social networks, including the big ones like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Plans start at about $50 per month and increase in price.

 

By tracking analytics, companies get to see how they’re doing. They may see the audience they are reaching isn’t quite their target audience and shift marketing approaches to fix it. They can also measure their reach and make sure word is getting out at all. They can also make sure things being said about their companies are mostly positive, to keep their image clean.

Data mining

 Data mining is one of those hot-button topics that everyone has an opinion about--opinions which are almost never positive. To be fair, it’s hard not to feel wary about some weird software on a website that keeps track of your data, and it doesn’t help that it has the most suspicious-sounding name possible. Seriously, “data mining?” That term reminds me of those lame-but-cool-rebel-hackers in bad action movies who can gain instant access to your computer files with a mere click of a button. Of course, reality tends to be far less glamorous than the movies: “data mining,” at least as it is used in social media research, can be used for practical research purposes. Still, I find that many people still have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the topic, likely because they associate the process with websites like Amazon using their information to recommend products similar to ones they have previously bought (a big problem if you’re susceptible to buyer’s remorse). Those aren’t unreasonable complaints, but the truth is that data mining can be utilized for multiple purposes, some good and some bad; as a result, it’s important to be mindful.

Instagram and COVID-19 Information

     Instagram has been marking posts and stories that mention COVID or the vaccine with an information label with a link to learn more about COVID from a verified source such as the World Health Orginization (WHO) or the Center for Disease Control (CDC). If a post contains claims or information that goes against or violates Instagram's COVID-19 and vaccine policy, Instagram will remove the posts. 

     It is important that large companies are taking misinformation seriously, and doing their best to try and stop the spread of misinformation. Especially when misinformation can lead to negatively impacting others. When going through the policy, there are some interesting points, (that to my own non-scientist eye) seem incorrect in themselves. Just a few days ago, the administration of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine has been halted due to rare side affects of blood clotting. Yet under Instagram's policy, posts can be removed based on sharing "Claims about the safety or serious side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, including: Claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or seriously harm people (such as, causing blood clots)."  

    My hope is that Instagram updates their policies as new discoveries and updates are made as we learn more about the virus each day and the vaccines that are being distributed to stop the spread. 

https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-to-keep-people-safe-and-informed-about-covid-19

https://help.instagram.com/697825587576762

https://www.cnet.com/health/us-officials-call-for-johnson-johnson-vaccine-pause-due-to-rare-clotting-problems/ 

Attention as Social Currency

All this talk about social commerce has gotten me thinking about attention and how social media treats it like a sort of currency. And in a way, it kind of is. Monetization strategies for platforms like YouTube reward people for their view counts. In other words, people are paid for the attention they can attract. And that's not always a good thing.

Social commerce is a clever way to do business, but it can bring out the worst in some people. It's generally assumed that people will do anything when money is on the line and social commerce makes attention into a new form of money. So now people will do anything for attention and there's a lot of bad stuff that will get you attention very quickly.

I don't know if anyone else remembers this, but there was a viral Twitter thread a few months back. I don't remember exactly what it was about, but the thread got attention by just being really stupid. People did some digging and it turned out that the woman who posted the thread also had a Patreon account where you could commission her to post stupid stuff about any topic to start arguments. Now that's an innovative business strategy. Of course it's also causing a ton of drama where none needs to exist, but people are clearly getting their money's worth.

I guess there's nothing inherently wrong about starting fights online as a business model, but it just feels scummy. Most people don't like arguing, it ruins their day. So it seems generally detrimental to social media as a whole. On the other hand, it apparently pays pretty well.

Online Apartment Listings as Social Commerce

In the past couple years whenever I find myself searching for apartments, I always go through a few different websites. Some I use as a default, others out of curiosity. Typically, I do the searches on my computer rather than on my phone because I don’t want to have to download any apps and the websites don’t really look that great in phone browsers. It always feels like it’ll mis-click on a filter or something. It’s always interesting to look through apartments online, but it never really occurred to me that I was effectively trying to shop online for a place to live. The commerce portion of the websites is obvious—I look at rent above anything else (and since I’m stuck on Long Island, one of the most expensive places to live in New York, it’s hard to not flinch at the prices for even the smallest place). It’s weird to think about, that everything can be bought online, from food to cosmetics to places to live. Most apartment hunting websites are either posted by the person renting out the space or may go through a broker, so you may be interacting one on one with your potential new landlord.

 

I have a few opinions on what draws me into certain postings, but they may not be universal. A lot of apartment listings will post very bright, well lit, beautiful pictures of well-furnished rooms and manicured lawns and obscenely blue pools. It’s mostly the chain complexes that do these, and they seem so fake that it loops around to unappealing to me. It’s so clearly staged that I can’t imagine a person living in it. Obviously the best posts show well lit, clean apartments and maybe any outside area involved, but there’s a line where it just feels like being lied to. I also like when they get a clear scale for how large the rooms are and show the kitchen appliances. A lot of apartment postings, I’ve noticed, don’t have stoves or ovens or refrigerators, and every time I see one, I wonder how they expect me to eat.

 

It’s to be expected that apartment postings have some sort of rules or restrictions. No dogs, no smoking, that sort of thing. But on websites that are less explicitly geared towards advertising apartments, such as Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, sometimes people get weird. It may be a person seeking a roommate or a landlord seeking a tenant, but they will post some vey specific demands at times. Some postings are obvious scams and red flags, such as offering you a free room if you’re a young single woman willing to be a live-in maid or “be in a relationship with” the original poster. When I saw the latter posted once on Craigslist and I almost spat my drink out. Online social commerce will bring out the creeps no matter what, I guess. (And don't worry, I've never contacted these types).