Predictive Technology in Social Media

Description

Can behaviour on social media predict future purchase patterns? Can what we click on social media foresee which political party will we vote for? Can the information we share on our wall foretell the next series I might want to watch? Can the likes on Instagram and Facebook predict the time one will spend on digital platforms in the next hour? The answer is no longer science fiction. It points to the ability of mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to be able to deliver specialised advertising services to highly targeted audience segments controlled by the billions of devices that flood our daily lives. At the same time, it highlights a more relevant problem: can social media guide, suggest or impose a certain behaviour or thought? Everything seems to indicate that they can do it. Predictive Technology in Social Media comprises 10 essays that reflect on the power of the predictive technology of social media in culture, entertainment, marketing, economics and politics. It shows, from a humanistic and critical perspective, the predictive possibilities of social media platforms, as well as the risks this entails for cultural plurality, everyday consumption, the monopolistic concentration of the economy and attention, and democracy. The text is an invitation to think, as citizens, about the unbridled power we have ceded to digital platforms. A new voice to warn about the greatest concentration of communicative power ever seen in the history of humanity. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Acknowledgements Preface Introduction: From Delphi to Zuckerberg – Conquering the Future Table of Contents Part I: General Discussions on Prediction-Oriented Algorithms and Attention 1. Algorithmic Culture: Limits and Notes for the Discussion 2. The Functioning of Attention as a Behavioural Prediction Mechanism in Social Media Part II: Predictive Consumption? 3. Predictive Analytics in Digital Advertising: Are Platforms Really Interested in Accuracy? 4. Consumption Prediction on Netflix: Audience Tracking Analysis Based on the Recommendation Algorithm in Times of Pandemic 5. Social Complex Networks Analysis as Predictors of Users’ Behaviour in the Digital Society Part III: Ethical and Political Implications of Prediction 6. Predicting Government Attention in Social Media: A First Step for Understanding Political astroturf in Interest Representation 7. Social Media as a Framework for Predicting and Controlling Social Protest in the 21st Century 8. Reviving Topological Thinking in the Post-Media Condition 9. Ethical Insights for the Social Media Age Epilogue Index