This is Five Minute Friday episode number 44: Addicted to Data.
I was driving my car, and I don’t drive often, because there is Uber in wherever you are, probably, and you can get anywhere taking an Uber or walking or a combination of the two. But nevertheless, I was driving a few days ago, and it was a bit late, it was in the evening, and I was passing this car, I looked over at the driver. They were driving, it was like a guy in their 20s, maybe 25 or something, and he was driving with both his hands at the top of the steering wheel and he was holding a mobile phone in his hands. Like imagine that, both his hands together at the top of the steering wheel, holding a mobile phone, texting with both his thumbs, and trying to look at the road and at the phone at the same time. It was very clear to see because it was night or evening, and the phone is very bright, so it was obvious what was going on and because I don’t drive that often, don’t see that stuff. I heard the statistic that it’s about 30% of drivers text and drive. But it was very refreshing to see that happening and it made me think that wow, I can’t wait for driverless cars to happen, because that is definitely not safe at all.
But anyway, the point here is first of all, don’t text and drive. It’s very dangerous. But the thing that it made me think of is being addicted to data. And even that whole experience of being in the car, when I was at a traffic light, I had this urge – I don’t know where it came from – I had this urge to pick up my phone and to check my email. Or to look at what’s going on on LinkedIn, or another social or other network. I don’t know where it came from, and I don’t have that often. Even when I drive, I don’t usually have that. But for instance, for some reason, that day, I did have it. And yeah, it made me think. Why does a person want to text while they’re driving? Well probably it’s not just about the information that they’re getting. It’s about the emotions that that information is triggering, that the connection they are building with the people on the other side, and so on.
So that’s probably not just addiction to data. That’s communication. Data is the means to communication there. But what happens when you check for instance your feed? When you check your LinkedIn news? Or when you check your Facebook news? Or when you check just a website like a news website? Or when you check your Twitter? That’s another one. When things are not directed exactly directly at you, when just information is passing by and you’re grasping it, you’re getting bits and pieces of this information, why are you doing that? Why are we, as humans, doing that? Well, I think this is an example of being addicted to information. That we don’t really need that information. It’s not directed at us. We don’t have to act upon it. Unlike a text, where it’s directed at you. The person’s probably waiting for a reply, and so on.
But when you’re just looking for these updates, whether you see it or not, nothing changes in the world. And more often than not, nothing changes for you either. How often have you been in a situation where you’ve just read something and it was completely useless and you just wasted two minutes, or half a minute, and then you move on to the next thing, you forget about that. Or some people just specifically go to websites where they just go through these updates all the time, all the time, and by the fifth update, they don’t remember what the first one was. I’m talking about websites like 9gag and so on, where you just have these funny images or memes or something, and they are completely useless to your life, but nevertheless, you are looking at them.
In essence, there is something in the brain that is triggering a response, saying that you’re getting satisfaction from looking at these things. And that’s a whole concept of addiction to information, and I hate to disappoint you, this is an open-ended question, there is no answer in this episode. That’s something that came to my mind when I saw that. And the only thing I can think of is, it’s important to recognise that, as a species, we are under threat from something so deep. It’s very powerful, it’s ubiquitous. Information is all around the place. Data is everywhere. And unless you learn how to protect yourself, your mind, from all of this information that is around, that your mind is trying to grasp for unknown reasons. There probably is some psychological studies around this notion or concept, and there’s probably been some research done, and maybe there is even a few Ted talks on this case, and I’ll definitely have a look for some.
But it’s pretty clear that this is happening, and if it’s happening to you – I think it happens to everybody to some extent – it’s important to understand when it’s happening and protect your own mind. So being addicted to data is not a great thing, but it’s there. And unless you live in a forest, I think we all have it to some extent. So make sure to protect yourselves from being addicted to data or from letting your mind just drift away and get caught up in the moment, get caught up in the data, basically, and instead live in the moment.
And finally, of course, don’t text and drive. So, so important. Driverless cars are not that far away, just give it a few years, maybe 5, maybe 10 years I think, maximum, and they’ll be here, and then you can do whatever you want. But for now, be safe on the roads. We need lots of cool and smart data scientists like you. The world needs you so take care of yourself. Don’t let your brain get addicted to data. Protect it and don’t text and drive.
I know this was a bit all over the place, but hopefully it gave you some food for thought. And I can’t wait to see you here next time. Until then, happy analyzing.
