Big Data and Human Culture

On Sunday, January 17th, I decided to record the things that I believe could connect me to big data.  Upon waking up on Sunday, my dad was coming into town, and said he wanted to have donuts for breakfast.  I googled “best donuts in Raleigh” and narrowed my search down to two, “Rise” in Cameron Village, and “Duck Donuts” in Cary.  We decided on Duck Donuts.  While we were there, I checked Facebook on my tablet, and on the left side, I had noticed there was already an advertisement for “Rise” on the right hand side.  I was very surprised by this type of data moving so fast.  After breakfast, we went to Guru Guitars to try out this new acoustic they had recently got in stock. After playing it, loving it, and understanding I would never be able to afford it, I decided the least I could do was give them my email so that they could get in contact with me for any news I might be interested in.

I am on the NCSU varsity wrestling team, however I am currently out with an injury, but I was still able to go and watch my team compete that afternoon against the #17 Virginia Cavaliers.  I logged into Periscope so that a friend from home could also watch the match.  Although I was logged in for only one person to watch, a total of 173 people logged onto my channel, and afterwards, three of those people then followed me on Twitter.  The dual ended with the #3 Wolfpack upending the ‘Hoos 35-7.

For dinner, a few teammates and I went to a sports bar called Rudino’s.  My friend said that he heard it had great Yelp reviews, so we tried it.  I thought it was pretty interesting that a site where random people saying whatever they want on the internet impacted what I had for dinner.  Before going to dinner, I stopped at an Exxon to fill my car with gas.  I used my “speedpass” and I noticed that when I swiped it, I was required to put in my home zipcode.  I was very curious as to why this is needed.  I asked myself, “What kind of information are they able to gather, just by asking me my zipcode?”.  While at dinner, I received an email from Guru Guitars, the same place I had visited earlier.  It was a promotion for the new acoustic guitar that I had just played that morning.  I actually laughed out loud, knowing that just because I gave someone my email, I am now able to know when a 1968 Martin D-35 has entered into a guitar shop in Raleigh.  It seems so random, but in reality it’s not, because the information that I had been giving out all day suggests that that is what I was interested in.  And guess what, it was right.

city concept