Why are there wedding photographers all over my Facebook?
I still remember coming back from my camping trip last November. My father, boyfriend, and I had gone with our church for their annual family camp out. James–my boyfriend–and I had brought homemade pumpkin pie. It was the perfect way to celebrate turning eighteen. But what made it perfect wasn’t the pie, camping in the woods, with the hushed sounds of wind blowing through the trees, the fresh air, or any of kids we spent the weekend entertaining, it was the moment my phone alarm went off, telling me that at last I was a legal adult, and I could ask James to marry me.
I’ll be honest, I don’t actually remember changing my relationship status on Facebook. It wasn’t a big deal to me. Most of my closest friends had known I wanted to marry James for nearly a year, and I never believed in “Facebook official.” What I remember about changing my status was how almost immediately the ads on my page changed. They were no longer the familiar links to artist websites, or canvas suppliers. They were all for photographers. Wedding photographers.
I was dumbfounded at first. “What the hell?” I kept thinking. “Does Facebook keep track of my status?”
Somehow in the haze of college, I had failed to notice that the ads had been tailoring themselves to my preferences with ever more accurate precision. But after the initial shock wore off, I didn’t care.
And maybe I should care. Maybe we should all care. But somehow, what happens on Facebook feels like it should stay on Facebook. Should I spend my time offline worrying about what I did online? Maybe, but I won’t. I’ve always preferred to be disconnected. And when I think about Facebook taking my information to third parties, I can’t help but think that it’s more worth my time to log off rather than fight the system. If I don’t tell them where I am, they can’t find me.
While most people won’t take my “log off and stop complaining” attitude, something tells me that most Facebook users aren’t concerned about the security of their information.
