21Aug14 0206hrs @wishcrys
Hey #Twitter, you’re doing it wrong. Jamming my feed and cramping my style, so not cool.

Okay folks, disclaimer:

I’m no Twitter or Big Data expert. In fact, I know very little about Big Data. My brief (and introductory) encounters with it at CCIWS13 and again at OIISDP14 has thrown me into a mixture of confusion (self) and awe (for my colleagues who *do* know this stuff). 

/end of disclaimer

This Saturday, I catalogued the ads my Twitter Inc. iPhone app fed me over 24 hours from 22Aug14 Friday 2300hrs to 23Aug14 Saturday 2300hrs. I am also aware that these ads vary across the Twitter hosts/servers/platforms that I use i.e. Tweetdeck, Twitter on the web, etc.

Why do this (and so amateurishly)? Because the ads were beginning to annoy me along with the new invasive system of Tweeples’ ‘Favourites’, ‘Following’, ‘commented on’ Tweets being inserted into my stream. Now those patterns make sense to me. And I’m also beginning to enjoy these sneakpeeks into other universes I otherwise would never have transversed into. What doesn’t make sense to me are the targeted ads Twitter tailors to/for me.

I attempted to find some connection between the ads and my Tweets/RTs/Favourites/Comments/DMs. I do suppose that my random web surfing on other apps and platforms and the web in general probably fed into some of that metadata. But this is a minimini experimental attempt by a super noob qualitative anthropologist, so please bear with all my blatant ignorance and also enlighten me with all the obvious things I must be missing.

Another disclaimer:

I have a rather non-mainstream sleeping/working pattern that = I am most active on Twitter between 2200-0500hrs on most days. This probably explains the strange time stamping/spacing of the ads although I genuinely catalogued each one in (almost) real time over 24 hours (tangent: I was up rushing a paper and obviously checked Twitter incessantly because procrastination and because up all night any way, thus this minimini experimental attempt)

And you know what? It was not as much screen-shotting as I had envisioned.

Going to attempt to contextualize the rest of my Twitter activity chronologically. This experiment might fail because there is just no logical pattern or because my brain is a fail. Again, if you are one of the wizards or goddesses who spots any thing, please enlighten me! Will send you cyber hugs in kind.

Here goes:

2300hrs
Last Tweets about university funding cuts.
DMs about academic conferences and Tumblr gifs.
Ad from @Lumo_Energy about #TheBlock.
Connection: I Tweeted about #TheBachelorAU last week,
which is on the same network and channel as #TheBlock?

—

0000hrs-0200hrs
No new Tweets.
DMs about food and weekend laziness.
No ads.

—

—

0400hrs
No new Tweets.
No new DMs.
Ad from @HuaweiMobileAU about #AscendG6.
Connection: Tweeted in Mandarin less than 48 hours ago?
(Also Whatsapped friends about Taiwan and Shanghai and Beijing as holiday destinations…)

—

0500hrs
No new Tweets.
No new DMs.
Ad from @HP_Australia about #BendTheRulesAustralia.
Connection: I Tweeted about music and YouTube music clips in the last 48 hours, so there is some awkwardly weak connection to the prizes involved? I’m just winging it here.

—

0600hrs-1700hrs
Last Tweets about sleeping, crying, quotes on hooliganism, books, libraries, students, honour, construction work, milk, Tumblr gifs, deviance.
DMs about conferences, academics, holidaying, coffee, weekend leisure.
No ads.

—

1800hrs
Last Tweets about consumerism, eating.
No new DMs.
Ad from @AccentureHealth about #eHealth.
Connection: Probably all the disparate Tweets about sleeping and crying and hooliganism and deviance. HAH.

—

1900hrs
Last Tweets about eating, quote from Friends.
No new DMs.
Ad from @Targetaus about @DanniForTarget.
Connection: I don’t know but I like shopping (and placed an order with Forever21 in the last two weeks?)

—

2000hrs
No new Tweets.
No new DMs.
Ad from @OCCSolutions about Passive Optical LAN (?)
Connection: ???

—

2100hrs
Last Tweets about sleeping, advertising.
DMs about holidaying, conferences, love, food (wow I Tweet a lot about food).
Ad from @RSVP about Dating Made Easy.
Connection: DMs waxing lyrical about love in the theoretical sense?

—

2200hrs
No new Tweets.
No new DMs.
Ad from @RoadshowFilms about #IntoTheStorm.
Connection: I Tweeted about storms in the last 72 hours. (tangent: and also Instagrammed an outfit and the caption contained the word ‘storm’ as in ‘stormtrooper…’)

—

2300hrs
Last Tweets about selfies, office, books.
No new DMs.
Ad from @durexaustralia about #30nights.
Connection: Twitter are you suggesting I spend too much time on nerd things in the office and need to have an alternative romantic life?!

—

I honestly cannot see any coherence. Smart people, please help. I think I should Google Twitter’s targeted ad policies but I also want to leave the desk now because I am hungry and want to feed my body.

Abrupt end here.