From LOLs to Money

Having this professor from London come and talk to us was extremely informative and interesting. As mentioned in the lecture, Facebook and Google use our information to recognize certain people of certain types like certain things. The world wide web sets standards while also distributing information, and allows for information to be made available to all of us at once. He went on to talk about the difference between Google and Facebook’s revenue in 2017; Google brought in 111 billion USD while Facebook brought in 40.6 billion. About 85% of Google’s money came from advertising, and a whopping 98% of Facebook’s money came from advertising too. The idea of “free laborer” also came up, for example our posts and activity help Facebook and other social media apps analyze data to help spread more information, thus us working for free access to these applications.

The professor continues by talking about Airbnb, how in London it was illegal up until 2015. If you wanted to use the app, you had to go through the government. Another interesting topic that he talked about in this lecture was Snapchat…how snapchat is just a bunch of mini TV channels. As consumers and users, we are constantly creating content and helping these companies and corporations flourish. Our freedom and free access create for constant content and advertising. We are walking billboards.