I bought something from one of these ads last summer. It was supposed to be a battery powered pump (like to blow up a pool float). The thing that came in the mail was just a cheap hand pump. Moral of the story here is be careful of these products. I assume lots are bait-and-switches like what I experienced.
Instagram Has Become SkyMall
181–190 of 341 posts
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#182I think it looks more like The Shopping Channel than SkyMall. Although there’s definitely an overlap.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#183I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post from those groups will trigger an onslaught of ads almost exclusively for conservative churches and conservative organizations.
The algorithms can't differentiate between "pro", "anti", and "observer" on a particular topic. Nor does it seem to have any awareness of ideology. It's very rare when I see progressive churches advertise.
I understand that the algorithms are going to have difficulty with subtleties. But I'd think they'd still have some rough awareness about "anti" vs. "pro". And thus not flood people who dislike a thing with ads promoting the thing.
At any rate, I suppose it's oddly reassuring Facebook is so inaccurate. Judging by the high number of critical comments on the religious ads, there are many uninterested people being targeted.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see that as absolute win.
I'm not a puritan by any means, but literally millions of kids use this app. It's not a good idea to have these things mixed.
The would you think of the children?!? Argument is so destructive for anything privacy or freedom related, it is politicians silver bullet for any issues. When anyone makes that point now I completely ignore it, as you can use it for anything to do whatever you want, specially curtail freedoms.
Educate your children if you are so worried about them, that’s the best thing you can do.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought some sensors that Instagram advertised to improve ski technique and they’ve worked wonders
If you don’t mind me asking, can you please share a product name or link? Sounds cool
As the other poster said, it’s Carv (https://getcarv.com/) . It has helped me a lot to improve technique, I actually learned how to carv in skis, and I’m much more comfortable when going fast (my speed record is now 105 km/hr) .
It’s beautiful having objective data to tell if you have improved and what did you improve, as well as what needs more work.
For me it was a cheap buy as a private lesson one whole day would go for the price of the device, which I can use the whole season and gives me objective data.
Stomp it tutorials in YouTube is also a big help.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#186I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
I don't necessarily think you're experiencing an important flaw here.
I'd wager that the vast majority of people interacting with content related to evangelical Christianity are in the "pro" category, so people in the "anti" category are an acceptable false-positive.
For example, if I'm trying to sell something to evangelical Christians and 95% of my views are "pro" and 5% are "anti", that's still hugely valuable to me and something Facebook can charge a lot for.
Maybe FB could increase the price without the false positives, but neither they nor their advertisers care that much.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#187I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
Sure the algos can always be better, but consider the possibility that conservative churches just spend absurdly, mind-boggingly large sums of money on fb advertising.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#188My biggest problem with both Facebook and Instagram is that I feel completely out of control over what I see. There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts. The timeline shows me the same handful of people in mystery sort order mixed with ads, and then I later find out I haven't seen months' worth of someone's content when I happen to visit their profile. The only half…
It seems like they really do mangle the main timeline, no matter what you try to do. But a small workaround, if you are a member of any useful Facebook groups: there is a real, permanent sorting option. https://www.facebook.com/groups/[groupid-goes-here]?sorting_... Bookmark that with a group for a proper chronological view.
Thanks for the tip, it's nice to at least be able to do that for one group at a time.
However, I follow about 300 groups :-/
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#189My biggest problem with both Facebook and Instagram is that I feel completely out of control over what I see. There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts. The timeline shows me the same handful of people in mystery sort order mixed with ads, and then I later find out I haven't seen months' worth of someone's content when I happen to visit their profile. The only half…
>There is neither a way to avoid what I don't want, nor a way to ensure I see my friends' posts There's both on Facebook. You can set it so you always see a person's posts and you can click on any post to see less of that type of content (or none from the poster).
How do I check what my current settings are, list all the people I've set to "show always", and all which are hidden?
I also do not recall ever hiding anyone intentionally, because then I'd probably just unfollow them. I could be wrong, however.
Also, is there a way to see friends I'm currently not following, in case I did that by accident?
Thank you, that would be very helpful.
Edit: I am reminded now of the settings you must be talking about, the "show me more of this" preferences. I tried them, but they seem to have no effect on what I see or don't. And, of course, I can't hide the ads.
Re: Instagram Has Become SkyMall
#190I don't use Instagram much, but I am on Facebook too often. The limitations of the advertising algorithms are very interesting to me. For example: I participate in ex-evangelical groups because of my childhood experiences. Also follow pages which discuss American Christianity from a secular or journalistic perspective, and in Christian groups which interpret their beliefs from a left-ish ideology. "Liking" any post f…
If you were running these ad-campaigns, how en who would you target and what would be the revenue?
I think those ads could have a very good return, the more provocative the ad the more they will be talked/thought/bought, and that is the whole idea of advertising.