B2 – Upper Intermediate
Online targeted advertising is nothing new. Advertisers have been using demographics like gender, age, political affiliation, and location to deliver what they consider as relevant ads to the netizens. The folks at Twitter, however, decided to innovate and offer advertisers information about their users’ emotional states through the emojis that they post.
Should this be a matter for concern? Watch the video below and judge for yourself.
Discussion Questions:
- According to the video, what is a targeted ad?
- What do you think about Twitter giving advertisers access to emoji data?
- How does an emoji differ from an emoticon? Which was introduced first to the public?
- What three emojis do you use most often?
- Give examples of emojis that have an emotional context attached to them. Which emojis come across as positive, negative, or neutral? Which emojis do you feel tend to be ambiguous?
- Do you follow any politicians on Twitter? In your country, does the use of Twitter by government officials impact public opinion?
- Is it harmless to let a faceless advertiser know how you’re feeling?
- A Pew Research Center survey revealed that 51% of US adults are not confident that social media sites protect user data. What do you think about this in the context of data protection practices in your country?
- Would you like other social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook to follow Twitter’s lead and use emojis in their targeted advertising?
- Can you live without emojis?