User:Daisy James

Daisy James

15081554@stu.mmu.ac.uk

DATA

Comparing our collective previous knowledge, our group has decided to look at data and how it can be realised in a digital format. Understanding that data is facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis, we intend to use the topic of data as a means of discussion and a foundation for the research behind our project. Our individual research into data asks questions surrounding the topic and the discoveries from our research vary. Something we collectively recognise is the magnitude of data and how much is given and gathered on a daily basis.

Considering our own data, we questioned the who, what, when, where, how and why of our collecting and giving: we identified that data is given and taken almost unconsciously. Automatically whether it is qualitative or quantitative, we process it in numerous ways, whether performing a physical action or clicking a button on the computer. We questioned how much data we as a society are aware of giving and gathering and decided that ultimately the subject is disregarded unless it is deliberated in regards to money or an actual individual. The amount of data that is put out in to the world is disguised as unimportant. Freely we opt in to give to give our data. When we go online, with each button we click we provide information on our choices and who we are. The information we provide is dispersed across the internet and filters in to our ‘digital life’. Looking at the example of online ‘cookies’, we are provided with a problem box, where the only solution is to click ok or an X, when an individual click ok they are agreeing to infect their browser with pop-ups and advertisements. We question this in relation to our free will: by giving away one element of data, we are pushed into a set of chain reactions. Through a collection of algorithms, we are encouraged to take another look at a pair of trainers or to book an Airbnb etc., the power of reoccurrence acts on an individual and they feel forced into feeling that they need a certain object or experience, our data is manipulated and becomes an influence on our behaviours.

Seemingly we have no sense of free will online. We are effected by a chain reaction created by external sources, there is a sense of cause and effect and the reason that my google finds are different to your google finds are down to a computer determining what is right for me. Essentially, we find it easy to blame the internet for its capable ways in interfering with our lives and the information we receive, however it is important to explore that the data that intrudes on our lives is developed via an input and output. When an individual freely clicks something on the internet, they are making a choice out of free will to give away their data: As individuals we think that we have our free will removed from us however the only people successful in taking away our free will is ourselves.

The group has determined that in the modern world we have sense of free will however, how we respond to our free will is down to the individual. We have concluded that our behaviour has the ability to be manipulated and influenced and data is equally a cause and effect of this. In order to understand free will in data, we want to conduct an experiment to visualise a sense of free will and how it can be explored in data. We intend to observe data and free will as a chain reaction, how this is reflected as cause and effect and how our conclusion can be demonstrated digitally.