Spoiler alert* this post has nothing to do with space jam.
As I scroll through my Facebook page I can identify one main influences. The profile name is “Vlechten met Daan” and shares a multitude of videos. The she. doesn’t seem to produce any of her own material. Most of the time the she is sharing videos from other profiles, or reformatting videos from other users and putting her logo on it, but always tagging the original creator. Even though she is not creating any of her own content, she still has an enormous following. With over 20 million likes on Facebook and over 3 thousand average shares per video, it’s easy to say she has a rather huge impact. When you or I share a video it may reach a few small group influencers. For instance my mother is rather connected on Facebook, and through it she runs a rather fluent network of women that share her common interests. “Junking” as she calls it, is the process of taking outdated or unwanted furniture and other various items “junk” and giving them new value. This not so uncommon phenomenon is something that has been taken roots in the social media realm. My mother has this opportunity by networking within a small area of North Carolina. though she has a small amount of influence on the women that share her common interest, her impact beyond that small community of women is rather minor. So if my mom posts a picture of me on the Internet, I will assume a large majority of my mom’s friends will see it, along with the larger part of tyro (my hometown). But if for some reason I was to be the subject of one of Vlechten met daan posts, I can’t even begin to know who all would then see my photo. The range of her impact as a key influencer makes her posts more valuable than most. However her posts are frequently on my page because I watch them often. I can say I visit her page a few times a week at least, most likely my most visited page. Facebook knows I like the content of her posts so her posts are bumped to the top of my timeline most times, even if a post if a few days old.
I do wish that we could revert back to the old way that timelines on Facebook used to work… Like temporally.. Like a TIMELINE.. Ugh. The new algorithmic Facebook uses you to keep spending you time on Facebook. If it knows what you like, it can keep your interest long enough to kind something else you may be interested in. And there is not opting out of being tracked either, you don’t even have to like content, by simply viewing the content you are now subject to having your information catered.
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Sometimes I like to delude myself by thinking that only my friends on Facebook can see my posts or pictures or anything about me. But like you brought up, my posts can be shared by someone else, or liked by someone else, and if the privacy settings aren’t super restrictive (to the extent that no one can see anything at all), then people that I don’t know and have never met can see my photos and posts. Knowing exactly who has access to every bit of information about me is an impossible task.
I think it’s interesting that even someone who doesn’t post original content can have such a large following. We are so over-saturated with images and videos sometimes it can be challenging to know what to look at or pay attention to. This is why I think rebloggers or re-posters have such a large following; they do all the searching and compiling for us so we can find everything we like in one place.
In one of the previous posts I read, the poster said something to the effect that we sign up for the intrusiveness of social media. Due to the intrusive nature, we have no real choice on when we see what on Facebook. I think we have right to decide who we first, but that’s it! We really don’t have a choice. I really liked how you tied in how your mom has a greater influence due to her interest in “junking.” Great post!