From the constant notification found in my emails, “you have 2 items in your cart, would you like to purchase these items?” could give away what I enjoy doing on my free time. Online shopping for me is never fully completed. This is because I am a college student trying to save money for new toothpaste I need next week.
Clothes and essentials I might want will sit in my online cart for weeks for me to just ponder at, but at least I have my financial priorities straight. It is clear that those items I have in my cart are being accounted by from the attached store and turned into ads on my direct social media feed as “things I might like”. In an article, Your Leftover Shopping Cart Items Are About to Show Up as Instagram Adsby Natt Guran, it says that this online strategy is called “retargeting ads”. The stores will track your online shopping cart to create ads that fit your style. (https://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/05/10/instagram-dynamic-ads/) For me, it has successfully steered me to even more clothes I love but can’t have, however it does provide me with unique gifts ideas for Christmas or Birthdays! The underlying, creepy factor is that us as consumers have no idea we agreed to the industries allowing them to watch our browsing history. We have probably agreed to the allowance of this by simply clicking “yes I agree to these terms and conditions” while quickly passing through the 4 pages of statements and agreements. This example that I have recently found and now always encounter falls right under the idea of Szymielewicz’s thinking. The inner layer of my identity and the things I share, gender, has been revealed on these sites as soon as I click on the women’s section, then it flows into the second layer of what my behavior shows, which is what I look for on websites. Lastly, the computer or the people behind it, can tell or think of what my life is like. If I’m moving into a new apartment they will know because of the recent purchases of tables, chairs, couch, bed sheet sets, dishware, and the list goes on. Those purchases and views might trickle down into home magazine ads or ads for home good stores such as “Pottery Barn”. The effect that the strategy of retargeting ads has on us as consumers almost shapes our lives. That is frightening to think about because every time we see an ad it sparks an interest we may have never had. What if I purchased that black leather couch and the next day I saw an ad for a white microfiber couch that was better. An outcome could be to return that black couch and purchase the white one, completely changing and switching my living room, a place that displays my raw life and interests. The question is, did I choose to buy that white couch because I truly loved it or did I buy it because it looked popular and aesthetically pleasing on my Instagram feed? There are truly so many things companies and industries have access to at the touch of their fingertips. Our browsing history and online shopping carts are just a few things we have realized that are accessible to not only our own devices but thousands of companies. I’d thought I would leave this example for you down below to see the real ads and correlation that happens behind our phones. This was an ad I saw while scrolling through my Instagram this afternoon and sure enough it was an ad for hair accessories, something I was looking at the night before.
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