In this episode we'll dive deeper into trending, tagging, and challenges. Maybe the information you're divulging when sharing memes, tagging your friends, and participating in viral trends is not as harmless as you originally thought.

All of us have heard of social media influencers at this point right? The girls on their Instagram accounts trying to sell vitamins or protein/pre-workout shakes. People today are legitimizing marketing through personal social media accounts and creating brands and businesses. Have you ever been convinced to buy something because of what someone else said/posted online? Have you ever stopped to think about why you trust a random stranger's social media posts?

When you log into Facebook or Instagram, do you feel like you are being targeted and driven to specific content that re-enforces your existing ideas, or do you feel like you are being challenged with new information? Should big data or large social media platforms (both which have the power to influence) be allowed to involve themselves in our lives in deeply consequential ways, such as elections…? In this episode we will explore these ideas with Dr. Craig Albert, and dig deeper into questions things like who is creating this content, who’s distributing it and WHY they showing it to YOU.

In today's episode we'll discuss the dangers of Terms of Service agreements and the malicious background activity that occurs when you blindly sign these agreements. How do you think Google's become so great at predicting your future movements or how TikTok tailors the perfect videos to keep you hooked? Well today we'll dive deeper into that and give you some background information on how it all occurs.

To see our full show notes with references, please visit: https://ga-cyberworkforceacademy.github.io/cybercats/ep_1.html