Task #9 Network Assignment
I found the assignment this week left me with more questions than answers, but I found the content really intriguing and something I want to continue learning more about. This data from our quiz results is almost like a little teaser that leads us wanting more information for a better understanding. While the data outlines the connections between us in terms of which songs we selected, it doesn’t tell us why each person selected each song, why other songs were not selected, or if anyone had rated the songs in a specific order. Were the ten songs each of us selected our favourite songs out of the list or was there additional criteria we included to help us make our decision? Did some people engage in further research to find out more about the origin of those songs, or did they simply pick songs that related the most to their own song taste? These are questions I am unable to answer by looking at the current data.
Through looking at the data, I see I have a lot of song choices that were similar to the selections made by Heidi and Patricia, but does this mean we have similar musical taste or that I have a lot in common with them? A lot more data would be required to answer these questions. At this point we can only make assumptions as to our connections outside of music and I can only assume their reasons for selecting these songs were the same as mine as I don’t have any further information to base this on. Ernesto highlighted how the relationships within the network are constantly changing as our interests, behaviours, and activities also change. I wonder if we took this quiz again months later, would I have connections with more or less students? Hammel and Yurshansky state that “what is inside is what counts” when referring to the underwater cables, and I feel this sentiment also relates to this data in that it is what was inside each person prompting them to select specific songs that really matters and this data cannot explain that.
I noticed that our class had a lot more groupings than the example Ernesto showed in his video from a previous class. That leads me to think that the students in our course have less in common with each other than the previous course as we didn’t all fall into the same few groups. In the previous course there were 4 groups, one of which shows the connection with everyone, whereas in our course there are 7 groups, one of which shows the connection between everyone. I don’t know why this is, whether the previous class truly had more in common in regards to music or not.
References
Nat and Friends. (16 December, 2016). A Journey To The Bottom Of The Internet [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=129&v=H9R4tznCNB0&feature=emb_logo
Pena, E. (2020, July).Week 9: What is the web and what is not. [Canvas Module]. Canvas@UBC. Retrieved from https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/51407/pages/9-dot-1-what-is-the-web-and-what-is-not?module_item_id=1805022