At 5:30 a.m., I Woke up and turned the alarm on my phone. I quickly scrolled through the notifications on my phone to see if anything was necessary to read. I then got ready for work, made coffee and breakfast, sat on the couch, and watched the news to see what was happening with the tragic incident with the airplane and helicopter crash in the Potomac River.

I arrived at work at 7:30 a.m. and checked my email. Knowing I would be working half a day, I logged onto Zillow to see if there were any new listings I could show my clients in the afternoon.  

At 9:42 a.m., I checked my email and noticed Zillow had already sent me two emails with homes in the area I was looking at. Knowing they might be potential houses for my client, I looked at both, then discovered they would not work.

At 12:32 p.m., I left one job and entered another, where I got on the computer and started looking for a home again in the area. I have a tenancy to log onto Zillow and then go to Metrolist to see homes that have been on the market for a bit but do not show up as they do on Zillow.

At 4:00 p.m., I met with my clients to show them a townhome in their target area. When I found it was not what they were looking for, I headed to Zillow, as it’s a better resource than any other home site, to find another house. I checked Metrolist to make sure it was still available. We then went to look at a couple of them.

When I got home at 8:00 p.m., I went back online to Zillow and Metrolist to see if there were any new listings. I then spoke with a colleague who told me to check Realtor.com. They have some of the same listings but don’t track your clicks as much as Zillow.

At 9:30 p.m., I went onto TikTok to see what other RE agents were talking about regarding pricing, interest rates, and what was selling and not selling in the area. The one thing I can count on with TikTok is that they are good at following your algorithms, and I find I get more of the information I am looking for, not only for myself but also for my clients.

It is now 10:30 p.m., and I’m winding down for the night when I am shocked to find out on X there’s been another plane crash in Philadelphia. This makes me wonder why I didn’t see it on my notifications, but then, surprisingly, there it is. I was too busy looking at other things to notice this tragic event.

It’s 7:00 a.m., and it’s now the weekend. I find myself checking my Instagram and then my personal and professional email. I found 13 listings waiting in my email, both new and past ones I have viewed.

This 24-hour experiment is an excellent example of how important it is to protect your privacy on social platforms, and it is pretty concerning when my name is out there. Anyone can find out information about me and my personal life, so I lock down my platforms. The downside to having a professional platform with limited privacy is that it makes it easy to know where the ads, promotions, junk, calls, and texts come from. During COVID, I put a house I was selling on social media. I received 30 DMs from people wanting to marry me and other crazy information that had nothing to do with the house I was selling. It was an eye-opening experience knowing my data was going into different countries and they were the ones who were responding to my Marketing Ad on Facebook. It was then I knew how important it was to make sure you are protecting yourself and your privacy, especially on your platforms.