Hello fellow reader,
Welcome to my latest blog post. This time, we will go a bit deep, or lets say a bit dark. I think that one line is enough to sum up the drama in this post. What I want to discuss today is the negative side of data. Let’s face it, we all live in a capitalistic world, where things are commercial… very commercial.
Let’s take a step back and establish grounds here on what sort of data we are talking about. This basically refers to the data which is collected by big corporations to predict and develop market trends. In my introductory post I mentioned how I was intrigued to find out if we are controlling data or is data controlling us. This is what I want to dive deep into in this post. There are several things we will discuss today. Ultimately we will be discussing the impact that negative use of collecting data and using it for advertising, leading to a negative impact on our society.
Social injustice
The very first thing which comes to my mind when I think about negative sides of advertising is social injustice which exists in our society. Do you ever feel that you have a specific rank in society? Just because you have a certain amount of financial resources, it affects everything in your life basically. This includes the area where you live, the grocery store you frequently visit, the shopping area which you visit but also the cafes you visit, just because the crowd that you relate to goes there. I live in the very center of Brussels. I love my neighborhood, it’s the perfect mix for me. In 5 mins, I can reach the coolest bars, shopping district and amazing restaurants. However I do wonder if people from the other chique part of Brussels feel the same way about my neighborhood? You can find similar shops in both sides of the cities, however the difference is MONEY. The downtown of Brussels is relatively cheaper in all aspects in comparison to the upper districts. This makes me question, does paying more for the same cup of coffee makes it a status symbol? Just because I pay 2 euro 50 cents for my coffee instead of 4, does this make me fit in the socially lower class of our society? This basically boils down to how the marketing stimuli that I am exposed to are based on the data group I am in. Do I see ads on my Instagram for a coffee shop across town? No. Do I get discount codes for clothing stores across town? No. It does ultimately lead to how advertising is based on data which leads to division in a society.
I also had a chance to go through an interesting study by Jess Ben Habib from New York University, sheds light on how capitalism has also evolved the human beheaviour. Due to consumerism which was become the norm, it is the monopoly power who are shaping the trends in the capitalistic societies. This has a direct effect on social welfare aswell. Adveritsng specifically can have a negative effect on social welfare. Excessing advertising my corporations affect directly the demand in the society which tends to lead to a bigger requirement which the social systems have to fulfill to achieve social satisfaction.
Enlarging Gaps
In High school, I studied advanced economics. In my very first class my teacher explained how the gap between the rich and poor enlarges. We already touched upon how advertising based on data leads to division in society. Now we can discuss how the richer in our society are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Data is collected in all sorts. Based on our previous purchases we also get exposed to different marketing stimuli which motivate us to make bigger purchases. Let’s take a practical example of myself. I have a phone from a specific brand, the same brand will expose me to ads about their tablet, and then their smart watch and then their wireless headphones. When we are exposed to so much advertising it does naturally lead one to make a purchase decision. I am a marketing graduate and I know this system exists and WORKS. Comparing me to someone else in the society who has not made these purchases from this brand in the past is naturally not exposed to more advertising from this brand. Since I have made these purchases, this opens to me to bigger offers to get more resources to make my life ‘easier’. Let’s take another example to clarify this point. Let’s say I have bought a house and a certain real estate agency reaches out to me to sell my house at a price which will give me a big profit to buy a bigger house in another neighborhood in the society. Will this make me richer? Yes. Will this give a higher status in society? Yes. The gap between me and a certain someone who lives in a rented apartment in the same country has definitely enlarged. To round things off in this subject, we can assume that this excessive advertising based on data causes materialism to exist in our society, further contributing towards the inequality that we face today.
Since we are discussing gaps here, I would also like to add how advertising has also contributed towards enlarging gaps between genders. Statistically speaking, the advertising world has been dominated by males, which leads to this mentality of men having power in the society. In a society which practices equality, this is clearly contradictory. A study conducted in University of Nairobi looked upon the gender gaps in Media advertising. The study had interesting insights about how many people in the society are not even aware about the gender gaps in our society.
Mental Health
Another aspect which comes into action here is health. This is not just physical health but also mental health. Being exposed to this sort of excessive advertising can lead to anxiety and depression. We gave reference to materialism before and this can also be further referenced to mental health issues. Corporations work for profits, and in order to achieve these targeted profits, they use excessive advertising to promote products which many don’t need. Going back to my first economics class, I learnt about the distinction between ‘Needs’ and ‘Wants’. Needs refer to water, food and shelter, whereas wants are basically everything else. Due to evolution of change in demands and the growth of capitalistic societies, the demands for products which fall under the category of ‘Wants’ have greatly expanded. I have been trying to get into a practice to ask myself several times before making a purchase if I really need that product and what is the personal and social benefit of it.
Relating to mental health, we also have to think how is media actually tackling this issue. Is enough being done to tackle severe social issues such as mental health by the large corporations which collect data? Due to so many ongoing issues, mental health is becoming more stigmatized in the popular media. Are we getting more and more judgementmental about someone’s mental health which has lead to others having a negetive emotion towards their selfcare? This is a interesting question that I asked myself. I had a change to discover a journal from The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma by Patrick Corrigan, which enabled me to reflect more on this question.
Negative Body Image
Although this is connected to mental health, negative body issues are highly connected to false advertising. This doesn’t specifically refer to unrealistic body images which appear on social media today. More specifically I am referring to all the weight loss products which get advertised with false advertisements. These ads create a wrong expectation for people leading to being unhappy with their current body. Generally speaking, looking for shortcuts has become a problem in our society. Large corporations which use these as their agenda promote unhealthy products. Naturally these products do not work and cause frustration for the person who has purchased them. Overall just because you are a certain weight or height, it can make you a target of false hopes in terms of physical fitness.
Data and Politics
I have been talking a lot about data being used for commercial advertising. However we have to understand that data is not just by commercial organisation. Data is also used by political parties who can use it to find like minded individuals to gain new followings. This is known as the Hive mentality. The information that you access online functions as data under your possible interests. Political organizations also take benefit from this system to find new potential followers. I personally speak for myself about the amount of political ads I see on my social media. Many times these political ads do not at all relate to political views that I agree with. However the idea is to expose me as to a new political campaign which perhaps I am not aware of. Small similarities between my concerns between me and the political party are enough for the system to identify me as a potential supporter.
In our last round table discussion for this blog, I had also addressed my topic to our team members. I personally was able to get a lot of interesting insight from everyone. One of my group members mentioned that we all live in a capitalistic society. As the basic norm in today’s society revolves around this, working towards social change in a positive light can be challenging. Another team member used the word ‘Marginalized’. This was interesting because this gives a reference to social injustice which was discussed earlier in this post. Definitely certain groups of the society are marginalized in comparison to others.
Okay, we have talked enough about how bad advertising has been in our society but perhaps we can put in some good things also. To me it is okay that data is collected in order to ease my life as a sustainable buyer. With the help of advertising, it has also enabled me to purchase sustainable products which are not so easily available in my neighborhood. The idea of solution building has also come into play with the help of advertising based on data.
This entire project of understanding data better has helped me understand the impact of choices I make online. Every click matters as it contributes to my characteristics to the companies which collect my data. What I click on, I get exposed to. This also makes me wonder if our lives are controlled by our actions or by these agencies which influence our choices by exposing us to different marketing stimulus.
I personally want to thank you all readers who have taken the time to join our team on this journey. Its been so great working with our amazing team members. Having read their blog posts, I have realized that there is so much more to data in comparison to what I had originally thought. As this project comes to an end, I hope our blog posts were making you enjoy your coffee slightly more than usual. 🙂 After working on this project, I definitely have made developed a strong relation with my morning coffee, I hope you did too.
Below are some of the interesting articles I enjoyed reading:
Benhabib, J., & Bisin, A. (2000). Advertising, Mass Consumption and Capitalism. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.23.1646&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Corrigan, P., & Kleinlein, P. (2005). The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma. On The Stigma Of Mental Illness: Practical Strategies For Research And Social Change., 11-44. doi: 10.1037/10887-001
Feldman, D., & Crandall, C. (2007). Dimensions of Mental Illness Stigma: What About Mental Illness Causes Social Rejection?. Journal Of Social And Clinical Psychology, 26(2), 137-154. doi: 10.1521/jscp.2007.26.2.137
MOTURI, J. (2000). Gender gaps in media advertising. University Of Nairobi.
Murphy, M., & Evershed, J. (2019). Between the devil and the DUP: the Democratic Unionist Party and the politics of Brexit. British Politics, 15(4), 456-477. doi: 10.1057/s41293-019-00126-3
Valentino, N., Hutchings, V., & Williams, D. (2004). The Impact of Political Advertising on Knowledge, Internet Information Seeking, and Candidate Preference. Journal Of Communication, 54(2), 337-354. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2004.tb02632.x
