INTRODUCTION
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in someone else's shoes? I have, and I still do. I have always dreamt of being a traveler. Because traveling via airplane is and always will be too expensive, another way of traveling and experiencing new places that has gained popularity in recent years is traveling by van. Some people take it to the next level by selling their homes and actually living in their vans to have the opportunity to see and live essentially anywhere. Because I am so interested in this lifestyle, I wanted to trick my online databases into thinking I am a van lifer. For this project, I essentially lived in a van lifer's shoes when it came to how I went about using social medias and how I went about using search engines and online stores. The internet uses and tracks our data to create algorithms dependent on our interests. It also uses that tracked information to push things it thinks we would be interested in, such as targeted ads. By attempting to trick my algorithms into thinking I was a van lifer over the course of a few days, I wanted to see how sudden and how drastic the changes to my feed and ads looked, specifically on Pinterest. By using Pinterest, Youtube, storefronts and web browsers, I will show how each online platform worked together and shared my private information with each other to shape my Pinterest feed and the types of ads I got on it.
BEFORE
Before starting the project, my Pinterest feed consisted of a lot of pins mainly relating to Hello Kitty, small tattoo ideas, room decor, cute and girly wallpapers, outfits, cartoon and anime characters, and recipes. I never really payed much attention to my ads, but in starting this project I realized a lot of them have something to do with either beauty products or clothing. Before starting the project, my Youtube feed consisted of recommendations from my most watched Youtubers (DanAndPhilGAMES and The Try Guys) as well as some stuff from my watch later playlist. Not pictured is my history, but most of the videos I watch consist of DanAndPhilGAMES videos, The Try Guys Videos, music, and videos such as short video documentaries that I had to watch for my classes. My ads on Youtube I feel are very random and I can't pinpoint any notable ads I've gotten in the past and if there have been a theme.
THE PROCESS
Pinterest is one of my favorite apps, and I think I use this app the most besides Instagram. One thing I've noticed about Pinterest in the past is how fast it adds my new interests to my feed, and that stayed consistent in this project, especially with the help of outside factors such as searching on online storefronts such as Amazon and others.
The first thing I did when starting this project was look up "Van living" on Pinterest and I pinned the first thing that popped up-- an image of the inside of someone's lived-in van. I then added that pin to a new board I created titled "Van life", which was one of the suggestions given by Pinterest. From here, I scrolled a bit and saved a few more things from the van life search results. After a few scrolls, I then made another search: "van life storage" and pinned a few more things to my van life board. After that, I closed the app.
The next morning, I opened Pinterest again. This time however, the first thing on my feed was related to van life. As I scrolled down my feed, more things popped up relating to van life, but overall the things that appeared most on my feed still related to my main pins (such as Hello Kitty). I saved each pin related to van life. In addition to saving the pins, I clicked on the recommended pins that were below each of the van life pins I had already saved.
Only two days into the project, I already started seeing ads that could be related to van life. At this point in the project, I had not done anything for the project outside of Pinterest. When I first opened the app, I got an add for a Capital One card specifically meant for travel purposes. If one is a van lifer, they are traveling quite a bit, so this ad seemed pretty targeted. Later on in the day, I went on Pinterest again to interact with van life posts more, and as I searched up "vans for van life" I had gotten an ad for a portable generator with solar panels, which is something almost every van lifer needs and owns. I was quite surprised to see targeted ads this early on, considering I only looked at stuff for about 10-15 minutes each day and it's only been 48 hours.
After getting my first ads relating to van life on Pinterest, I decided it was time to step it up a notch by doing some digging outside of Pinterest. I first clicked on the solar generator ad Pinterest recommended which led me to the product on the Lowes website. From there, I looked at similar products on the Lowes website that could be used for van life, such as the portable lithium battery. I then decided to go on Amazon. On Amazon, I searched up "van life essentials" and started clicking on products and clicking on recommended products, which lead to me finding the vehicle emergency kit (pictured above). I then tried to be more specific with the search, so I typed in "window insulation kit for vans" which led me to finding the noise and light canceling window cover for vans (pictured above).
One of the days I spent on my project was dedicated to Youtube. During this day, I searched up things such as van life and solo female van life. I ended up watching videos on different things, such as tours of people's vans, how much it costs to renovate and live in a van, and things such as a basic day in the life of a van lifer. I watched some videos longer than others.
Immediately after finishing watching some videos relating to van life, I refreshed my Youtube feed and the second video recommended to me was a van life video. In addition to that, my Youtube shorts were already recommending me van life videos too (bottom left of the picture).
Later that day, I went to go on Youtube (not for the project but for my own personal leisure), and I was surprised to see another van life video recommended to me. It was the second recommendation on my feed. Considering it was only a matter of hours and I had only watched four videos, Youtube altered its algorithm to me and already knew I was interested in van life.
After looking at basic online stores such as Lowes and Amazon, I started to look into actually buying a van. Based on a lot of the Pinterest pins and Youtube videos I've seen, the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is a top choice when it comes to living in it and using it to travel around the country. I also found out through research that it is usually best to get a used one. So naturally, I looked up "used Mercades-Benz Sprinter for sale," clicked on CARFAX and put in my zip code. The closest place to get a used Mercedes-Benz Sprinter was in Collierville, TN, but I looked at other options that were available in other locations too.
AFTER & CONCLUSION
On the final day, I opened my Pinterest since I haven't done anything with that app in the past two days. Considering I wasn't on the app for two days, I was surprised to see 1) a van life post as the first thing on my feed, 2) multiple van life related posts on my feed, and 3) multiples ads relating to van life. The first ad was for a mini sink, fridge, and cabinet combination-- something that is very common to have in a small living space such as a van. I have a feeling that because I looked at similar products on Amazon, Amazon must have sent my private info (my search history) to other things my browser is connected to (such as Pinterest) to help me find even more similar things such as the ad I was given. Although this could be helpful, knowing my data is being sent to another company is alarming, and could potentially be harmful if what they were pushing toward me were something dangerous or favored a bad habit I expressed interest in. I also believe that my Youtube and regular search history data may have also been collected and sent off to Pinterest (and probably other sites too) because the second ad I received was for auto insurance. I do not have a car in real life, so I would have never gotten this ad if I hadn't been looking at vans for sale near me and/or watching videos relating to vehicles. This is similar to what Neil Richards wrote in his article "The Electronic Panopticon":
"Companies like Amazon provide a helpful service when they recommend books and movies to us on the basis of information we have shared about our preferences, but such data should be used only to help the customer." (p. 4)
By having big corporations such as Google, Amazon, and even Pinterest, collect our data, not only are they taking and sharing our private data, but they are using us for their own personal gain. Although yes, it can be helpful or nice to be shown or find things we are interested in (and even say "Oh what a coincidence I was just thinking of buying one of those"), at the end of the day, corporations aren't doing it to help us. Every media message is constructed, and ads are a media message. Big corporations want us to want to buy their products, which is why they send us ads that relate to things we are interested in. This notion goes hand in hand with this excerpt from an article from The Guardian (The wealth of our collective data should belong to all of us, Chris Hughes):
"The healthcare startup Oscar relies on analyses of its customers’ health troubles – and insights about which doctors perform the best – to support its new business model for health insurance. This new avalanche of data has in some cases created better services for consumers, but across the board, it has created historic profits for the companies that collect, organize, and develop insights from all this data."
In doing this project, every search I made related to van life, regardless of the platform/site I used, all tied together to send me 1) content I was interested in and 2) (and most importantly) targeted ads on Pinterest, in hopes that I would maybe buy that $2,199 solar generator for my van or buy that auto insurance plan. They don't care whether or not I actually have power or if I'm actually insured. They just know that I am already interested in the things I may need those products/services for, so why wouldn't I want to buy it if I'm already influenced?
Finally, in doing this project, I noticed that Youtube worked the fastest to change up my feed, and a part of me believes the reason why is because it is tied to Google. My Amazon feed also worked extremely quick, but Amazon already has a tendency to change your buying interests quick and recommend you new things based on that. Although Pinterest was a little bit slower than the others, the algorithm did start giving me van life content in less than a day, which I think is still pretty fast. I attempted to try to change my Tiktok feed, but it did not show any signs of change which is why I omitted it from this project. I think part of the reason why is because my Tiktok is so old and because it has so much information about me, that it would take a while to have a whole new interest be thrown in the mix in only a week. Finally, the most enjoyable part of the project was refreshing my feeds and seeing more and more content related to van life show up.
References
- Hughes, Chris. “The Wealth of Our Collective Data Should Belong to All of Us.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Apr. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/27/chris-hughes-facebook-google-data-tax-regulation?utm_source=Eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Media%2B-%2B05%2B01%2B2018%2B-%2BReuters%2BCommunity%2BNewsletter&utm_content=Media%2B-%2B05%2B01%2B2018%2B-%2BReuters%2BCommunity%2BNon%2BEU%2BNewsletter.
- Richards, Neil (2015, March 16). The Electronic Panopticon. The Chronicles of Higher Education.
Media in this analysis has been compiled for educational purposes.