As of today, China is the world’s most populous country with 1.37 billion people. Fun fact, if Facebook were to be a country, it would be the world’s most populous country with a staggering 1.86 billion monthly active users!
While reading Alex Gillis’ article on facebook data analytics and its uses, he seems to provide an argument that with the amount of data Facebook receives, and with just 68 likes, facebook can know a whole lot of about your life. Talking on those lines, not many know of the internal “Data science team” at Facebook, headed by Cameron Marlow. While reading this article about Facebook’s humongous data reception, I believe that we’re looking at a whole new spectrum of opportunities and unknowns. Alex expresses his concern about this data’s use and if it would be a stimulus to new opportunities or manipulations.
The way I look it at, this massive shadow of data which even the Data Science team at Facebook is unable to fully utilize, presents itself with a groundbreaking opportunity not only for Facebook but for the study of social behavior and the human mind.
As mentioned by Marlow himself, the possibilities and fuller utilization of 1.86 billion life activities are not even foreseeable.
By understanding the patterns and activity logs of a sample group of users could lead researchers to understand why do a lot of people “like” particular posts or do particular things based on their personalities. Also, keeping in mind that Facebook just went public, the use of so much data provides itself as a huge asset for advertising on Facebook, being a huge revenue earner.
Facebook, if we think about it, is the dream. A country where taxes are transparent(the revenue from advertisements), the government which studies the population for scientific growth, and a global community connecting people.
Word Count: 304 words
Reference:
http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/most-populous-countries.html
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/428150/what-facebook-knows/
