For this week, we learned about visitor and resident maps. We delve into further considerations of how much we are interacting with these different social media platforms. Upon my reflection, I realized that I have a good spread of different platforms that I use.

Most of the systems I use for work on a regular basis do not keep track of my data in any capacity. This means I am free to use them without fear that there would be a digital trail for what I am doing, including some mistakes or personal information from others.

Instead, I find that social media platforms are tracking my data usage. For example, YouTube and Spotify both make recommendations based on what I am watching and listening to in order to make a guess on what content I might enjoy. As a result, I find these systems more intrusive. However, I still continue to use them despite this.

I think it’s important that we think about what our convenience is costing us, rather than simply surrender our data whenever we use these systems. With enough usage, we may have given enough data to these large companies over a span of a number of years.