I interpret agency as the way people get information from others. For example, when your phone or device is sitting in close proximity while talking about a certain item or topic, later that day ads relating to that topic appears. However, as we do not know for sure if our devices are listening to us speak, a single search can give insights into thoughts. An everyday example includes searches on Tik Tok. Whenever a search on Tik Tok goes through whether it be a person, hashtag, or song name, all this information goes into the system and puts more of each topic onto your content stream. As soon as the search button is hit, there are thousands of keywords that connect your information and store it for later use. I have experienced this when shopping online and then later going into Instagram and seeing ads for this particular brand or clothing item, making me want to go back and buy the item. This is a way to show the user more about what they like rather than what they dislike.
3 thoughts on “Agency: Gwen Savidge”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
It is very interesting to think about the idea that we could be talking about something and then mysteriously receive ads for that particular product later that day. I’m glad you brought it up. This raises the questions of what is actually happening? Are our phones always listening to us? How much data do our devices take in from our conversations? The fact that our devices are capable of this is a little bit unsettling. However, I also liked your TikTok and online shopping examples. I feel as though those help explain “agency” very well.
I too think that there is a violation of privacy through the concept of agency. Although agencies reduce all the information out there into a specific niche for the user, it is of no doubt that they use information provided by the user either voluntarily or involuntarily. I have had personal experiences with the voice and speech agency algorithm example you mentioned and I received countless ads about the topic I was discussing with my friends. This aligns with the idea that agencies can as well be used for profit maximization
I really like how you were able to connect this keyword to social media apps. There have been many cases of this happening to me too. I find it so interesting how social media apps are able to control our algorithms based on our previous searches. Instagram explore pages and Tik Tok for you pages are both controlled by our differing algorithms. However, since these apps have so much control I can’t help but wonder all of the things our algorithms block out of our lives. One thing that appears on my explore page might not appear on my best friends. It is inevitable that the information we are all receiving from media apps are all at least somewhat different, meaning that everyone has a different connection to technology.