How is it possible that web ads refer to some irl discussions we have sometimes?
In: 5
This is a product of “big data” collection and processing. The advertising companies are constantly collecting and analyzing your behavior based on the various crumbs you leave online through TikTok, Facebook, Google, etc.
The companies can figure out a lot about who you are, what your interests are and then serve targeted ads to you based in all that data they’ve collected.
The served ads are probably mostly off-base and don’t relate to you and your immediate interests, but some are **spot** on. You only really notice the ones that match up exactly.
This is a form of confirmation bias. That is to say, you ignore the 150 ads that don’t immediately relate to your IRL conversation, but **THE ONE** that is selling you the beer your buddy **just** mentioned 15 minutes ago stands out in your mind. It feels uncanny, like the advertisers are listening in.
In a way, they are. If you are say 25ish, live in Minneapolis, search for beard styling cream, plaid flannel and penny farthing bikes, you’re likely going to be served ads for hipster beers and hipster jeans. You’ve outed yourself as a hipster and you, on a big-data scale, are a special and unique person, that has interests that overlap with the other 2,500 hipster and hipster adjacent people in your area.
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