Venmo and historical social recording.

It's strange to me the places where I encounter feeds and the ability to update a social status.   Recently I encountered it on the cash exchange app Venmo.   A few weeks ago I used the app for the first time to pay my kid's babysitter.  Venmo creates a profile for each user, and I was sort of shocked, after the payment was complete, to discover I was able to view my babysitter's profile, which included a record of all the various transactions she used the app for.   I did not linger once I realized what I was looking at, but it was strange to me that I could see all this detail, and also that I could even see the messages related to each transaction.

I'm sure (or rather hopeful) there must be a setting to hide these profiles, but I can't help but wonder why this wouldn't be the default setting.  Why on earth, especially on an app related to finances, should I be able to see (or willing to show) a history? 

It seems like in many places what we would now consider "traditional" means of communication has taken the form of social media feeds.   I noticed this even on my internal workplace ticketing system.  Not that we are sharing emojis on the platform or anything, but I have a feed of my tickets for computer issues, hardware requests, etc.  And on a ticket you can comment, and start threads, and create divergent conversations.   It's all there, creating a historical record. 

That's kind of cool, right?  I don't know if it's appropriate for Venmo, but I do think social media has created this idea of curating your own personal history of your online interactions.   So of course this could potentially be scary if you are being inappropriate and trying to apply for a job or something, but if you are just interested in tracking your own history it's easy to get lost in.  I get lost in it sometimes- I start reading my history of comments or posts on some website and then an hour later I remember I had something important to do.   A sort of vanity, perhaps, but it's also sort of like a journal, and what is a journal if not something to record and reminisce about your life experiences.

And this method of communicating online is becoming more commonplace.  And it's cool. 

Just maybe not on my Venmo.

Comments

  1. EME2040 BlogJuly 19, 2019 at 10:36 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. EME2040 BlogJuly 19, 2019 at 10:37 AM

    I have also been slightly weirded out by Venmo profiles and social stream open to all!

    ReplyDelete

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