What is SEO and how does it effect search engines?

Image from Oberlo.com Many people trust that Google or whatever your preferred search engine is will always put the best and most credible sources first. However, this is an assumption that has been proved wrong many times. Why is this? Wouldn’t Google want to give its users credible information first? The internet can be a …

The Systematic Marketing for Children

What is the truth? Marketing is the study and managment of exchange relationships. In other words, the business process of creating relationships with and for satisfying customers. There are alot of different apporaches businesses can take in regards to how they market a certain product or premise. Over the decades the system of marketing has …

Google AdSense

Mia Len Photo by Benjamin Dada on Unsplash Picture this - you’re on Youtube taking a study break and all of a sudden, in the bottom right corner of the screen, an ad for that Patagonia jacket you’ve had in your online “cart” for weeks appears. You click on it, but at the same time, you are freaked …

Editorial: Algorithms and Customized Content

The average person in modern society spends countless hours consuming media each day. It can be scrolling through your Facebook feed, checking videos on You Each post investigates various areas within the context of algorithms and the multitude of ways in which they can influence us. One group particularly susceptible to this brand of customized/recommended …

Cambridge Analytica – Weapon of Mass Destruction

Cambridge Analytica was a data mining, data brokerage, and strategic communication consultant firm. The personal data of up to 50 million Facebook users were acquired via a third-party survey: “This Is Your Digital Life”. Only 270,000 Facebook users directly used the survey, but the rest of the users that were targetted were obtained through their …

The User Data Feedback Loop

The user data feedback loop is revolutionizing modern day internet by using algorithms to make each user's experience - unique. Digital devices track all information entered into the system. This includes one’s digital likes, dislikes, viewings, shares, searches, texts, downloads and even data collected when the device is not actively in use, like GPS data. Media …

Media Literacy for Customized News

What is Customized News? Image from TheDrum.com We are consuming customized news everyday thanks to algorithms. Many of us may not even be aware of our customized consumption of news. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are social network platforms that deliver customized news, but they are not the only ones. Screenshot from Homepage of Apple News …

Psychographic profiling as ‘psychological warfare tool’

Source: Jesse Witt / Fastcompany In 2016, after the data-analysis firm Cambridge Analytica bought tens of millions of Americans’ Facebook data to create pro-Trump targeted advertisements, the now-former CEO Alexander Nix claimed that his company had “an integral part in President-elect Trump’s extraordinary win.” Although Cambridge Analytica is now defunct, other data-analysis and consulting firms …

The Problem with Youtube

The description from r/ElsaGate describes this phenomenon as videos, “on Youtube of reoccurring themes, animations in the context of inappropriate topics on several channels available and targeted at kids. Those videos often feature Spiderman, Frozen’s Elsa, Joker, Mickey Mouse and other characters popular with kids.” If you’re not familiar with the children’s youtube market, take …

The Human Error Behind Algorithmic Mistakes

YouTube error screen (photo courtesy of Brad Reed) The list of times where problematic content has been spread across the internet through manipulation of an algorithm is nearly never-ending. Many examples of this can be found on Facebook. The platform uses its algorithm to create a "Year in Review" highlight video for its users. While …