“The Internet knows You Better Than Your Spouse Does,” by Frank Luerweg describes how internet algorithms use psychology to identify personality traits of users. One algorithm used a small number of Facebook likes to pinpoint the “Big Five dimensions of personality.” With only ten likes, it could describe someone as accurately as a co-worker of theirs. This type of technology extends beyond internet algorithms. Studies observing participants’ eye movements were able to accurately describe their personalities based on where they look when walking around a college campus and shopping. Cameras on our computers and smartphones have the potential to read our emotions.
Even though the algorithms are based on personal information, facial expressions and psychological traces are maliciously and commercially used, there are some cases for which algorithms were used to better diagnose and treat psychological disorders and prevent suicide. In some research, the language that people typed and spoke on the phone were gathered and analyzed through the algorithm and it could determine the precursors of suicide and severe depression quite accurately. Moreover, a research team gathered every data from a tester from GPS data to phone calls and what he read on the phone. The team precisely analyzed and could better treat the patient with the result in which level the patient is suffering with a bipolar disorder.
In spite of potential positive effects from such advancements in technology, there are still potentially great drawbacks towards the Internet’s ability to recognize a user. While recognizing a user is mostly used towards commercial matters such as advertisements to suit the user’s preference, such information can result in modern day machine’s being able to use the algorithm in order to correlate further into a person. Such can include personal information such as using photos as facial recognition, with common photo algorithms pointing towards people in manners such as personal information like their orientation, or in certain cases, to recognize if a person has potential criminal tendencies. All this however, comes down to correlating through the given information, but as technology advances, they can lead towards further accuracy, and can reveal more of a person than what was intended by that user. In the end, even the slightest comment or photo on the Internet could open a book into a person’s world.
Paragraphs, in oder, by Georgia, Sean L., and Gabriel. Compiled by Georgia.
