Getting Noticed

To me cookies seem like a little invasion of privacy. I hate when people are pooling data and anticipating my moves. Maybe it serves me better, I find more things I apparently need. According to my facebook ads, I need a new job and I'm in a ton of debt. And I used to get a lot of suggestions for dating websites but that went away with the relationship status change. Certainly the level of automation involved in this diminishes the feeling of privacy invasion. It's not as if some creepster is in his mom's basement reviewing my rottentomatoes history so he can see what movies we both like. There might be, but it's unlikely.

To be honest, the statistical side of things doesn't interest me all that much. Developing algorithms and regressions can be effective but when dealing with people it only goes so far. For advertising, it goes far enough. They claim that they're seeking the individualized information necessary to focus on one person but their thought processes are geared towards mass trends. They're still lumping and categorizing people as rom-com movie goers. That works, but just not for everybody, and I don't think it ever will. I know, computers will get more powerful, more data will be gathered on people, but as long as we're often irrational creatures, I don't think you'll be able to create those individualized ad campaigns.

I went to the Air Force Academy so I still don't have any student debt. I'm locked into a 5 year commitment that doesn't expire for another two years so I'm not looking for jobs in California.  To be honest I'm not really in browse mode on facebook. I'm in browse mode when I'm reading the news which is why I like the dailymail.co.uk way of advertising. I recently noticed that hovering over their pictures of celebrities will reveal where you can buy the clothes they have on. I thought it was ingenious! I haven't used it. But it caught my eye. That's what they're trying to do anyways, right?