Big Data, Bigger Problem.

Big Data has a plethora of various definitions, but just defining this term doesn’t entail its complexity. In my opinion, I think Big Data is an enormous collection of data that researchers analyze attempting to find patterns and trends. It’s so creepy to think that someone out there is collecting my internet usage and monitoring what sites I use, trying to group me together with complete strangers that have the same “clicks” that I do. There is so much data being collected that researchers are bound to find patterns amongst people, but how rational and effective are these patterns?

In the article “The Anxieties of Big Data” by Kate Crawford, it states, “The bigger the data gets, the more small things can be overlooked. The risk of being seduced by ghost patterns in data increases with the size of the data sets. Meanwhile, two brothers carry bomb-laden backpacks to a marathon finish line, and a Boeing 777 disappears.”

This quote really got me thinking….what exactly do researchers search for in this data? So what if I liked a meme on Twitter as the same person did in Singapore, what does that prove? Maybe we have similar senses of humor or maybe that person liked the meme for a completely different reason than I did. Researchers should be using Big Data to help find criminals and stop acts of terrorism, but so much data is being collected the most important things are being overlooked. Instead, marketers search for patterns so they can group complete strangers together and deliver a personalized ad that they think will effect a specific user to buy their product or service.

“Let’s monitor each internet users web history and based upon their clicks we can understand their personality which in turn will allow us to create personalized advertisements and they will definitely buy our product or service.” Seems like an awesome idea… however Big Data misses the most important thing about internet users: the WHY.

Here’s my biggest problem with Big Data: it’s a collection of people’s internet history and usage, however, Big Data will never be able to know WHY a person visits a specific site. The WHY is the missing piece. For example, lets say a researcher has data that 84,000 people from 36 different countries liked a SpongeBob meme mocking United Airlines while using the Twitter app on April 15, 2017. Awesome, that’s great, but you can’t just group these Twitter users together because they simply liked the same image. The more important question is to learn WHY each person liked the image. Researchers should want to know WHY someone prefers Google Chrome over Mozilla Firefox, WHY users on Instagram create “fake accounts” that often portray more of their real life activities, and WHY users are so willing to share their credit card information online. Big Data is just statistics, researchers will attempt to find patterns and trends. I just don’t think these patterns are rational or practical. Just because we can monitor what sites a user goes on doesn’t mean we know WHY the user chose to go there. The WHY is what is missing and without it Big Data will continue to search endlessly through irrelevant stats to find inaccurate patterns.