I have a kindle that knows how fast I read and is able to
predict how many more minutes of reading time I have left to finish my book.
The prediction is always wrong because the speed of my reading varies.
Sometimes I read a page a day. Sometimes more. I have a GPS system in my car
that predicts when I will arrive at my destination based upon an analysis of
the speed at which I’m driving. The prediction has never been right because
traffic conditions vary. But rather than admit it’s going to be wrong the
machine simply adapts its prediction. Again. And again. And again. So when finally I arrive it
can take credit for being accurate. The same happens with the analysis of how
people use media. I was messing around on my computer one day and somehow made
visible all the data-tracking spies that follow my every click. Every time I
visit any site the side of my screen is populated with icons of all the nosy
poke trackers following what I’m looking at and logging it for their nefarious
purposes. But just as with my Kindle and my GPS I know that whatever
conclusions they arrive at analytically will be wrong. They can predict the logical next step I would take
but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take it. And maybe 99% of people will be logical
and I am just an irrelevant anomaly. But I have a gut feeling-no data support to prove it-that more people are illogical than they imagine. I recently read a report
of a discussion or debate featuring John Hegarty and Bob Greenberg about the
insightfulness or intrusiveness brought about by big data. Greenberg was extolling the wonder of the NIKE store where
your phone communicated with in store data tracking technology so from the
second you walked in your profile was being reviewed and when you came to talk
to an associate they knew more about you than you knew yourself. Hegarty’s
response was very British and made me proud. `Fuck off.' And I agree with that
response. I don’t want you to presume to know me. I don’t know that I know
myself. Just because a data analyzing opportunity exists doesn’t make me a
slave to it. It shouldn’t give someone another avenue to interrupt my life and
insert themselves uninvited into my life. The more you get in my way the more I
resent it.
Ads that pop up like roadblocks stopping me from getting
where I want to go unless I watch them or read them are on my immediate hate
list. Programs that try and make me seem like a creature of pure logic are
programs I actively try and mess with. If you liked mashed potato you’ll like
roast potato doesn’t work with me. My kindle liked to share ideas for what it
thought I might like to read based upon my early choices. Given what I have on
it right now that program has long since given up. Analytics may be the science of the future but it starts with the word anal and for me
that says it all.
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