For project 1, I decided to analyze what type of information social media applications ask you when you first sign up for an account; I wanted to see how little information I could give them, how much incorrect information I could get away with giving them, and what steps the applications took to try to get me to give them more information that desired. Each day I analyzed a different application’s sign up process, and discovered that while some of the applications have age requirements, others do not, but they ask for more access to functions on your phone instead. To begin this process, on the first day I logged out and had all the applications “forget” my accounts, and then I deleted the application off of my phone. I only re-downloaded them when it was the individual applications turn to be analyzed.

Day 1: Facebook                    

For the first day, I analyzed facebook, so I didn’t go any time without having access to the application like I did for the other two applications. To sign up, it asked me for my mobile phone or email address, and I opted to use my email because it is less personal. When entering my name, I tried to only put a first name, but it required me to have one, so I made Smith my last name. It then asked for my gender, and because I couldn’t get around it, I complied and gave them the information, although there was only a male and female option, which in this point in time in history I feel is a bit unfair. When it asked for my birthday, I tried to see if there was an age limit to sign up, and you the earliest birthday I could put was February 6th, 2013. Once I clicked continue, Facebook told me they were “unable to process my request at this time”; I think it was because i gave them false information, which I find very interesting because I don’t know how it would know the information was fake.

Day 2:  Instagram

For the second day, I re-downloaded instagram and analyzed the application and the information required to create an account. I found that after hardly 24 hours of not interacting on Instagram, I felt a bit withdrawn and out of touch. I think that not only speaks to my social media habits and constant need for entertainment, but also to my desire to see what other people are doing.

It asked for most of the same information as Facebook: phone number or email, full name and password. When it asked for me to pick a username, I chose one that reflected nothing of my name or personality – user1234567891. What I found most interesting in my analysis of Instagram was that while it didn’t ask for too much personal information, it asked me multiple times during account creation to connect to my Facebook account and to sync my phone contacts with the application to “find friends”. It also asked me twice if I wanted to save my login info for quicker login in the future – I said no, both times. This speaks to Instagram’s attempt to not only have consistent users, but to gain more information on their consumers by offering to connect all social media accounts together for an easier user experience when sharing posts. It also pushes users to engage with others and “find friends”, as if they were implying that most of your friends already have Instagram. One aspect of Instagram that I found very irritating is that there is no easy way to delete your account if you want to; it’s not in the account settings, and frankly, after looking for a good 15 minutes, I don’t know if there’s a way you can delete it.

Day 3: Snapchat

Not having snapchat for almost three days was strange at first, but actually made me feel better in the end. After I got over the initial feeling of missing out, it was actually relieving not to have a way to constantly check people’s snapchat stories, which are probably most active during the weekend. After going through the same routine that I did with Facebook and Instagram (phone number/email, name, gender, and birthday), I found that I was able to sign up with no last name, and with a birthday in the year 2016. What I found interesting about snapchat is that after entering my information, they had me do one of those picture tests to prove I wasn’t a robot; I wonder why snapchat of all applications asked for this, while Facebook and Instagram did not. Similarly to Instagram, Snapchat also asked me to have access to my camera roll; however, when I tried to say not, an “Oops!” message popped up, as if I had accidentally clicked no instead of yes. The message said “Snapchat is a camera app! To continue, you’ll need to allow camera access in settings”. Not only did they encourage me to turn on access for my camera roll, but they did it for the microphone as well. I found that almost all social media applications, including the three that I analyzed, require some form of access to a function on your phone in order for it to be used properly.

This week I thought I’d focus on the snapchat update. The new update is absolutely horrifying; in the old version, the snapchats you received and snapchat stories were in separate windows, making it very easy to avoid watching snap stories if you didn’t care about what others were doing. Now, the snapchat stories are on the same page as the snapchats you receive, essentially promoting stories and trying to get you to engage with the application more. It is more confusing, and a less attractive set up. It makes me not want to open snapchats because then I feel almost compelled to watch stories, especially when the feature is on the same screen. And it’s not just me that hates this update; people all over twitter and facebook are freaking out about how terrible it is and how everyone wants the old version back.

A couple months ago, I found this app called Seek; it is an application that is sponsored by companies, and it is essentially a treasure hunt. There are “treasure chests” in places all over the world, almost on every other street, and the application tries to get you to open chests– in these chests you can win coins or fragments of prizes (example: fragment 1 out of 4 for a $50 Amazon gift card). The chests with better prizes require keys to open the chests, and you can earn keys by using the coins you find to purchase them in the store located inside the application, or you can use real money to buy them. Essentially the more you play, the more coins and keys you’ll earn for a better chance at prizes; the chests occur in the same places and refresh every 6 hours or so, but the less frequently you have opened a specific chest, the better chance you have at earning a prize fragment instead of just coins. I find this concept very interesting because this application is sort of driving you to get out and “explore” and go to new places and you are rewarded for it— and as long as you consistently play, you’ll have enough coins to buy keys for chests and you don’t have to spend any real money. I have only used it for a couple months and I have only opened chests in the same exact places (my apartment, art and design building, and my walk home), but I have already earned a few gift cards.

At least once a week, often times more, Facebook likes to notify me when it is someone’s birthday; about 85% of the time it is someone I have rarely or never talked to and know by association. I find it interesting, yet annoying that Facebook notifies me of birthdays that I do not care about. Facebook is trying to acknowledge a celebratory event for someone’s life, which is a good thing, but alerting people who have no connection to said person’s birthday just become irritated (me). I also find it interesting because this specific person is someone I went to high school with, never really interacted much with, and have not seen in almost 4 years. I feel like Facebook wants me to reminisce on the past, which I don’t particularly want to do.