Sunday Story #3 — Aemilia Harbutt

For class, we were asked to look up our account data on any one of several social media platforms. I was confused at first because I had never really processed the fact that these apps record your data or that I would be able to access this information.

I didn’t know exactly what I would find when I looked at my account information. The first thing I saw was the exact minute and day that I first signed up for Instagram.

I hadn’t really thought about when I had signed up for Instagram, but as soon as I saw that date, I remembered the precise moment. It’s kind of creepy.

But not as creepy as the Ads interests I found under Privacy and Security. Instagram has recorded every category of sponsored Instagram posts I had been interested it. I guess I thought that sponsored posts/ads were random, but this data makes me think otherwise. This information is definitely being used for some reason. It makes me feel sort of like a test-subject in a lab being observed.