You Are What You Like

[Formalhaut]

So, I was browsing the news channels as I normally do when I'm bored and want a fact-finding binge, when I stumbled upon this:



Think twice before you "like": Facebook reveals your secrets (http://www.channel4.com/news/facebook-like-reveals-personal-preference-study-cambridge)



Basically, it was a study conducted by Cambridge University which investigated the extent to which "liking" something can describe your personality. The full report can be found here (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/03/06/1218772110.full.pdf+html), if you enjoy reading data.

But essentially to summarise, this is what it found from 58,000 Facebook users:




The algorithm model was able to determine African Americans from Caucasians 95% of the time.
Gay men were able to be identified 88% of the time.
They were able to discern Democrat and Republican 85% of the time.
Drug use, somehow, was determined 65% of the time.
Even more bizarrely, they could tell whether or not a person's parents were divorced by the time they were twenty-one. It's quite astounding with a 60% success.


Besides being quite amusing, according to the news article, it also shows how social media is increasingly being used for analytical stuff and tracking data. By liking something on Facebook, the adverts you get on the side are similarly tailored to you. For example, being an 18 year old student, I often get driving instructor ads and other "young people" stuff that I'm not into.

The entire point of this thread is to essentially ask you what sort of things do you like? Do you like anything and everything? Do you never like? Do you even use Facebook?! Of course, feel free to have a comment on the whole privacy issue surrounding social media as well.

And I leave you with this (http://www.youarewhatyoulike.com/). It's a small little thing where you log in to Facebook, and it reads your likes and tells stuff about you. It's not as thorough as the Cambridge study, but it's amusing anyway.


41730

Why, I'm blushing

[fire_of_avalon]

I read that article yesterday as well and tried to figure out how what I "like" might reflect on me. Thing of it is, I only like very few things on facebook now because I HATE page suggestions and stupid updates.

[Shiny]

High intellect > Curly Fries

What.

[Laddy]

Likes that are indicative of my profile: Baldur's Gate II, KOTOR, Grim Fandango, and Fallout 2.

About right.

EDIT: But I'm not shy. I guess 4 out of 5 isn't bad.

[Shlup]

I is things. Uh, yeah, I can mostly agree with this.

41732

[Faris]

I got...


Liberal and Artistic rather than Conservative and Traditional - Wrong
Spontaneous and Flexible versus Well-Organized - Debatable
Shy and Reserved rather than Outgoing and Active - Yup
Assertive and competitive rather than warm, trusting and cooperative - Bulltrout
Emotional as opposed to calm and relaxed - Probably


Maybe I should like more things, then maybe this won't be so off and the ads will be targeted towards me as a person rather than a generic female.

[Freya]

Liberal and artistic rather than conservative and traditional
Spontaneous and flexible versus well-organized
Shy and reserved rather than outgoing and active. I guess in a sense but i'm pretty outgoing.
Warm, trusting and cooperative rather than assertive and competitive
Emotional as opposed to calm and relaxed


Yeah that's pretty me.

[Pumpkin]

Liberal and artistic rather than conservative and traditional: I think this is wrong.
Spontaneous and flexible versus well organized: Sort of. I'm not all that flexible, but I'm not well organized either.
Shy and reserved rather than outgoing and active: Mostly.
Warm, trusting and cooperative, rather than assertive and competitive: I would say so.
Emotional as opposed to calm and relaxed: Yes.

[Bunny]

Shy and reserved rather than outgoingand active
Spontaneous and flexible versus well-organized
Liberal and artistic rather than conservative and traditional
Calm and relaxed as opposed to stressed
Assertive and competitive rather than warm, trusting and cooperative

More or less accurate, I guess.

[Laddy]

Bunny and I are the same person, apparently.

[Shorty]

Seems accurate enough.

[Aulayna]

I got:

Liberal and artistic
Spontaneous and flexible
Calm and relaxed
Warm, trusting and cooperative

Which is largely accurate :|

DAMNIT, get out of my head!

[Night Fury]

I got the same results as Shorty.

I'd agree with most of it except the assertive and competitive part. Whilst I can be very competitive, (it's actually one of the worst things about me tbh) I am also very warm and trusting and I'd say I'm more of that than competitive and assertive.

[Pheesh]

Same results as Shorty and Locky. I think it's pretty dumb honestly because I feel like I'm in the middle ground of a couple of those categories.

Also, how the hell did it come to that conclusion from my liking "Drawing Dicks on the Herald Sun"?

[Pike]

Yeah I'm getting what everyone else is getting.

I really only "like" games and game related things, though. :shifty:

[the_best_noob]

High intellect > Curly Fries

What.
Prepostorous!

[Pumpkin]

If they were to check Cim's likes, they would find that he hates Walmart employees and the baby Jesus :mad2:.

[Unbreakable Will]

Liberal and artistic, spontaneous and flexible, shy and reserved, emotional, assertive and competitive.

5/5 not bad I'd say.

[Shorty]

High intellect > Curly Fries

What.
Prepostorous!

Curly fries are god's gift to mankind.

[Cloudane]

I can't find the link where you test it? (Your algorithms may now assume that I'm blind and/or stupid!)

To be honest, Facebook is largely about letting people know you by publishing your interests so you can maybe discover that other people you know have the same interests. That's kind of what it's meant for, with all the pros and cons that come with it. Of course people will make assumptions - they will make the same assumptions if they get to know you by conventional means as well, or if you wear a particular t-shirt or have a particular ringtone etc.

Let's see, I often like cute things, Star Trek, MLP, anime and geek related stuff. It wouldn't take a genius to work out that I'm a geek, and by extension of the typical geek traits: single, shy, quiet, working in a technical job etc. And that by common brony traits I might be fairly kind and caring and enjoy popular "internet stuff". From the traits I've seen it might also assume I have depression, but it'd be wrong there.

Or maybe it'd take an Ignorant and Suspicious Human approach of "hurr durr it's an adult male who likes MLP, let's assume he's a pedo". In which case, if law enforcement - or worse still, the media - then worked off the same assumptions, it could ruin lives. Very chilling indeed in that case, but if there's one small blessing, a machine isn't a human. It'd probably go by real patterns and I've not heard of many (actually, any) documented cases of bronies grooming kids or whatever else people might assume if they were given a basic fact of "30 year old man who avidly follows a show for 7 year old girls" and no other context.
But even still, let's say that by some odd stroke of statistics, 40% of people who like both cheese and ducks have a criminal record. Suddenly, everyone who likes cheese and ducks is tailed by police and has their internet access monitored. Not good.

Question is, do we try to fight it, or do we accept this kind of thing as an inevitable part of the information age?

[Tigmafuzz]

Random idea, but if they used stumbleupon interests instead of facebook, it might be more accurate to what a person "is."

[Unbreakable Will]

Aye, but no one wants to be that honest.