WDIM - Data as Currency

Introduction

Clickbait...we've all seen those stories as we are scrolling through our favorite news sites where the title assumes some sort of cliffhanger ("You'll never believe what she did at her wedding!"). We instinctively look at that title and wonder "what did she do?", "was it something insane or outlandish?", and yet we also wonder "maybe that link will lead to a virus". This type of marketing is not necessarily new; newspapers still use the same type of marketing to gain readership. However, in the age of technology and information, this type of marketing leads to a different type of currency. Although briefly discussed in the previous post (Applications and Your Data), the desire for more and more data has become a huge money-grab for every company. Viewership, readership, advertisements, subscribers, etc. all have to do with data and money. But, if that is the case, how can we trust anything we read or see, when we know that it is geared more toward "clicks" rather than truth?

Virtual Realty

One of the main features in any website monitoring tool is the ability to see both how many first-time visitors there are and also how many visitors have there been. This information is responsible for a significant amount of any company's revenue. But, how does something as simple as visiting a site result in revenue? Advertisements and brand-recognition, of course. This is how bloggers, major news organizations that have little/no print media, youtubers, and domain trolls make money. Advertisers want to have their product in front of as many people as possible, which means that the more daily or hourly viewers a site has the more advertisers will pay for space on the website. Additionally, when a site has a significant amount of viewers and big-name advertisers, the domain name of the site is worth more (This is where domain-trolls get paid, also known as cybersquatting). Every site on the internet is similar to physical property, where the more heavily trafficked areas will result in higher cost (cost of houses near shopping/highways > cost of houses deep in farm land off of dirt roads). News organizations profit off of this fact as well by covering stories that draw viewership, rather than truth.

Brand Recognition

Every company that has a product and/or a website must provide the best of both worlds in order to increase the recognition of their brands. This is not only true for their company's website/product but also in regards to where they advertise; both of these areas contribute to the brand's reputation. A great example of this would be McDonald's; where most people saw McDonald's as a cheap, fast, and unhealthy option. But they are now spending large sums of money to rebrand themselves as an inexpensive, quick, and healthy option. The brand recognition for McDonald's was declining as health bloggers and health sites were coming out against fast food as being bad for a multitude of health reasons. Suddenly, McDonald's started producing healthier options, publishing health facts, and rebranding their previously "unhealthy" options as healthy (i.e. all-white-meat chicken nuggets). This is becoming more of an issue as the political landscape is more polarized now than ever, where advertising on the wrong website or channel could lead to brand suicide (many companies decide on where to advertise based mainly on public opinion). This can also be seen in Youtube channels, where subscriptions, video views/likes, and comments equal financial gain (Most youtubers will say something to the effect of "thank you for liking, commenting, or subscribing"). Although youtube videos can be edited to avoid controversial statements, others will exploit controversy to gain more views/likes/subscriptions (i.e. Logan Paul or InfoWars).

Data Science

All of these facts have lead to a very important career path (which will probably be one of the biggest career paths for the next few decades): Data Science. There is a massive amount of data produced every second by society and most of it is not able to be tagged and quantified. And for every piece of data that is not tagged or used, financial potential is lost. The more data that is available to strategic decision makers the more successful their companies will be. Imagine if someone could find the association between public opinion, hiring/firing of CXOs, economic trends, and the trending political landscape through data; they could make investment decisions that would essentially be like hedging your bets and make large sums off of those investments. If that data algorithm was able to be formalized and monetized, the owner of that algorithm would have significant financial success for removing most risks from stock market investing. Another way of data science monetization is in equipping sales and marketing. Being able to make marketing decisions based on customized data and historical trends allows for more pointed and effective marketing. This will also save time for those in sales as they are trying to more effectively reach out to prospects and avoid wasting time.

Why Does it Matter?

The paradox of the current data landscape is astounding. Not only do we use data as immutable fact to make decisions, but we will often sacrifice or munge truth in order to gain viewership via that same data. Major news organizations are exhibit number one for this type of paradox, where they use immutable data points to sell advertisement space on their channel which is partially fueled because truth is either purposefully skewed or discarded altogether. If you are looking for a future career, wondering where to spend your time now in order to better yourself in the future, data science is one of the most important career fields that will continue to grow and be useful as long as technology exists. Another reason this information matters revolves around how each person chooses to spend their time with connected devices. Knowing that places we go to get our information could be skewed based on monetizing viewership, do we trust the articles and opinions of these organizations? When companies are financially motivated, even the movements or politics that these companies claim to support or oppose is called into question. Therefore, shouldn't it be a normal practice that everything that we see, read, or hear online is immediately met with skepticism?