I was discussing in one of my classes about the demographics of an audience and how a speaker needs to adjust his message to suit the audience best. Some of these groups were separated by age, gender, ethnicity, and even by education level. It is human nature to categorize things, and people for that matter, so this is understandable. People who fit into these different groups do often have similar tastes to others in their group and differing tastes from others outside of their group. Advertisers use the labels placed upon people in the groups to more effectively sell their products, well at least in theory. The Internet has made it even easier to categorize people into these groups, but the problem is many people would surely be dissatisfied with the categories they have been placed into.
Anouseh Ansari, CNN contributor, had this to say about the labels that are placed upon us (and that we place upon others as well):
"Who am I? I'm a daughter; I'm a sister; I'm a wife; I'm a friend; I'm an entrepreneur; I'm a space traveler; I'm an Iranian; I'm an American; I'm a woman; I'm a CEO; I'm a Muslim; I'm an engineer; I'm an author. I am all that and yet I am none of it. These are the different ways people define me. They would relate to me in their own way -- see me in their own light -- and label me and box me as they see fit...Who am I? I am a human -- plain and simple -- no labels attached. I would be honored if everyone would think of me and preferably others as such."
As noble as it is to see everyone for themselves before categorizing them into groups, it is part of our daily life. At a basic level, we do this to better understand our reality, and at a business level we do this to better serve our customers' needs. With the prevalence of the Internet in our daily lives, however, these labels define us more than ever. Especially because of companies like Google and Facebook that gather information about us, we are falling more and more into the molds that are created to define us. A problem with this, though it's convenient, is that there are stigma attached to the groups. A person whose search history is composed of PETA's site or similar websites and vegetarian chat rooms will not likely be shown advertisements for Omaha steaks and Hickory Farm sausages. In this case, the stereotypes attached are useful, but they are not always so useful. I saw a story on the news of a woman in her fifties who loved baseball, and yet, because of Google's new privacy policy, was categorized as a 18-25 year old male. I'm not saying this is a huge problem, but it is possibly the first sign of a failed system of labeling.
Where this road leads, I'm not sure, but here is an alarming example of what could happen when labels are placed on all sorts of groups without remembering that each person is still an individual:
"Canadian singles who use Android phones are more likely to have sex on a first date and partake in one-night stands, in comparison to those with other types of smartphones, according to a results of a survey."
Enough said.
My purpose in writing about this isn't to undermine the effectiveness of the marketing strategy or urge people to guard their information from sites that gather it. I am simply encouraging a debate in order to get people thinking about how they are labeled and whether or not they approve of the groups they would be placed in. It might help you learn more about how others see you or it might persuade you from blindly listening to ridiculous claims like the one mentioned above. I'll leave you with this question to ponder - what's your niche?
While I agree with you that people need to start being more aware of the way they are being perceived on the Internet and that there are definitely flaws in the ways companies are segmenting their audiences, I believe that it is not so much "the Internet [that] has made it even easier to categorize people into these groups," as you stated, but rather individuals themselves who have made it easier for the internet to gather this information.
ReplyDeleteThe information, pictures, posts, etc that individuals post on their social media sites has long been a way for them to express themselves so that they would be perceived to be apart of a certain category. Only now that marketers and other professionals have begun to use this information as a way to analyze a person, have individuals attempted to protect certain aspects of their personal lives - which they previously posted voluntarily to portray themselves as part of a certain group.
The thing about labels is that to a degree they are necessary. Yes, they can be mistreated, but we label ourselves as much as allow other people to do so. Jung and a million other scholars of narrative acknowledge this, the shadow, the hero, the orphan, the mother, a billion billion universal symbols and labels we use and think with. Labels can be wrong, they can be abusive, but I think that is only when they are used wrong. A label, a definition, it gives us a place. Names of power is a common trope in fantasy and in narratives. This is because Names, labels, these things HAVE power, they have power over how we think and what others think of us. They are as much a part of us as our flesh and bones and blood. Are they who we ARE? No. Are they part of who we think of as ourselves? Very much so I think.
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