I don't think that anyone would be surprised at the data-based revelation that everybody lies on social media. But the article, Everybody lies: how Google search reveals our darkest secrets got me thinking more about how the data that can be mined from social media can be used. I found the exploration of social media data in this article fascinating. Especially the fact that Google searches can instantly tell you how popular the search you are making is. If you are typing in your search and it comes up higher on the list, it’s more popular. Using this to compare the difference in questions from women and men on related subjects was a really great example of the power that this search data has. Another great example was they way they cross-referenced data sources to confirm that certain people either are, or feel more comfortable disclosing, personal information about themselves in states where policies are more tolerant towards certain types of people. Or even the question about correlation of racism to the way people vote or the generalization that parents have a bias against young girls.
So it got me thinking about whether social media can (or maybe one day will) be used to drive policy either for companies or for governments. Will companies craftily use the majority opinions of the masses evidenced in this data to develop new products and services or refine existing ones? Will savvy politicians consult state level Google searches to help craft the way they communicate their personal opinions or political stances? Can educators consider popular search data when developing activities and lessons? Last night I was reminded of this article when participating in an online community related to an app that allows you to post things for sale and wondered about one way that companies can do this There was a recent update with some significant changes that have seemed to stymie sales for many of the sellers. This topic has come up again and again in this group and there have been suggestions and frustrations shared. I wondered aloud on one of the posts why the app developer didn’t have someone lurking in the group and take note of the trends in discussion about features. Wouldn't this type of information be important to consider during planning meetings related to the next update of the application? THese are real people discussing every day use of the app; better than focus groups! In my opinion this kind of real User experience (UX) information would be invaluable for the refinement of the user interface (UI). Politicians have long put a lot of effort into all kinds of research to determine how their constituents feel about issues and how they should carefully craft responses based on that. Wouldn’t social media data be even better than a town hall meeting for gathering insight into the feelings of their constituents? It would provide a much larger sample to look at and it would be based on anonymous data therefore much more likely to be a true representation. As for educators, I haven’t really been able to determine how social media data mining can impact them. Other than how they might be able to use this information to develop lessons related to current events or set up engaging debates on specific subjects. Perhaps how to mine and analyze the data can be a lesson in and of itself. Do you have any ideas how this kind of information can be used by educators in instructional design? I’d love to hear them in the comments.
1 Comment
Alexis
8/3/2017 07:25:12 pm
Interesting point about instructors using data mining to gauge interest in a subject! I think you could wade into murky waters there in terms of narrowing scope of a lesson too much when trying to tailor it to interests, but I suppose if data mining becomes common enough that it offers age group differentiation, it could be an interesting thing to consider!
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About this blogA simple exploration of Web 2.0 and social media and their applications to education; an attempt to learn how prosumers are shaping the internet and how educators can capitalize on it. ArchivesAbout MeNature grrl; loves dogs, books, traveling, clouds, technology, thrifting, break beats and good beer. |