Big Data and Remote Communication
So I am currently interning for a woman up in New York who runs her own editing business, meaning that twice a week we facetime for about 4-6 hours depending on the day and I complete tasks for her as she assigns them. Being that it is a virtual internship, almost all of my work is done online. The day I chose to track started with me watching videos on youtube on my TV, which does not have adblock on it so I found that the more videos I watched from a certain channel, the more the ads that popped up would change to reflect what I was watching. I was also doing research for my boss on Google Analytics, which is a service that tracks who is coming to her website and what they are looking at and for how long. I spent a couple hours doing research on Google Analytics, finding it oddly reflective of some of the things we discussed in this class. I also spent time researching other independent editors to see how their websites looked and what was working for them.
In addition to the research I was doing for my boss, I had my email open for the entire day to make sending and receiving documents from her easier. I also signed up for two new services to better our communication: Evernote and Asana. Evernote is a website/application that allows the sharing of “notes” digitally, meaning if I add a page from a website to my list of notes on Evernote, if it is in the right shared file my boss several states away can see it. Asana is a website that helps people get organized, and the way we use it is by her sharing a “project” with me (in this case her marketing to-do list) and as I complete the tasks assigned I can check them off and she will see that they are done.
All of that is just what I did for an internship, and when I add in time on Twitter, time logging into Moodle, time setting up a Voicethread account for my Arts and Design class, and time spent on Steam (where I had to add a phone number to my account because they have had security issues lately), my contributions to big data pile higher and higher.
The contributions I made to big data indicate a few things about me- namely that I want to track traffic on a specific website, I’m interested in editors/publishers, I like video games, and I’m trying to be more organized. Those few statements are pretty accurate, but I wouldn’t say that’s all I am. I don’t, however, think it would be feasible for me to opt out of big data since I am working in a virtual environment with a woman who lives several states away. I do wonder however how these data points will accumulate and affect me later on- my reading a Buzzfeed article about dying hair bold and bright colors, shared with me by my mom on Facebook, may stick with me for a long time. Looking at Google Analytics, I can’t help but wonder how detailed their tracking is and who else is using it to figure out if I am on their website and for how long. What if they keep that data and it’s something I don’t want people to know? What if they can prove I was on Facebook (admittedly waiting on a friend to message me back about helping me with a work related graphic design issue) while working on my internship?
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I like how you mention having to sign up for Evernote and Asana to better your communication with your boss. I think this example essentially embodies one of the overarching components of big data: that it’s a process of trade-off. Nothing is really free, and in order to be afforded the convenience of many services, you have to provide—or forfeit even—your data in exchange. So goes the nature of our contemporary landscape. I think you post really covers the all-encompassing role of data in our personal and professional lives, and shows just how unavoidable inclusion is.
One thing you mention at the end of your post is the ability to use big data to track our use of social media, perhaps during certain unfortunate times (i.e. when we’re at work). This made me think of the fundamental shift that’s occurring with social media – it used to be something purely used in your free time for fun, maybe to connect socially with some friends or family. Now, however, it’s often used for group projects in class or even intern groups at work (for example, I was in a “Summer Interns 2015” Facebook Group at my professional internship this summer). So accessing social media is no longer purely for fun; sometimes it’s academic or professional, too. Maybe the public opinion around the purpose of social media will change over time.
I wonder all the time if a company tracks how long I spend on their website. I tend to get a bit paranoid myself when I think about it. I like to browse buzzfeed either from my phone or my laptop. I can say conservatively I spend probably about a hour and a half on that website all day. It is my go to app or my go to website when I’m bored. It sometimes makes me feel as it I’m a more informed person. However, if I’m being tracked for everything I look at on a specific website then I must look like a mess to whomever is doing the tracking, because typically I’m all over the place. I hadn’t really thought about companies keeping track of how long you spend on a website, but I will now for sure!
Thanks for this post – it really highlights the way data is intimately tied into all of the ways we play, work, and learn. The interesting thing about Google Analytics is that this tool is information that Google is allowing businesses to see. What other information might they have that they are reserving only for themselves?