The Walled Gardens of Social Media: From the Free Web to the “Free” Web

The Walled Gardens of Social Media: From the Free Web to the “Free” Web, we leave a data trail behind, ready to be used, abused, or sold to the highest bidder. We pay social media services with our data, time, and attention, says Roxana Murariu. Social media algorithms want us to stay longer and engage in their ecosystems as these algorithms hoard and exploit additional bits and bytes of our identities in the background. The author argues that social media algorithms hoard user data with no monetary price to be paid.