Our generation has been shaped by social media. Likes, follows, favorites, and shares allow us to keep up with our favorite brands and people, and also let other people know what we like. I often assume that this world of social media is all happens-stance, and the world we know just changed and adapted. Although, after watching Generation Like businesses and companies have found a way to track, analyze, and use our likes and favorites to boost their marketing and increase their sales. And we are completely ignorant to it. I know I find myself liking and favoriting so many brands on a weekly basis that I personally want to follow or know more about, but in the background companies are using those social media actions to promote and advertise in a more personalized if not more effective way. Businesses have found a way digitize our simple interests into data they can use to study our habits and advertise their products back to us. And its not just to us, its also used on everyone who follows us or friends us. We are working for businesses with no compensation, and most of us are not even aware that it is happening. Being aware of this I can now be more conscious of what I do online and how these interactions affect me outside of social media, such as spending habit off and online, sharing, liking, and tagging people on something on Instagram just to win a giveaway, and many other ways. With businesses adapting their marketing on social media, social consciousness has not only become important in daily life but online as well.
It'll be interesting to find out to what extent this understanding of advertising on social media changes our behavior. I mean, I've watched Generation Like 10 times and I don't think I'm any more or less likely now than before I ever saw it to "like" some advertiser's content. Granted, I hardly ever "like" advertising in the first place, but I wonder what real effect this has on other people who watch that film.
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