I know, I know, it’s digital blasphemy to say that using Internet data is a terrible way to study social movements. What about all of those Twitter and Facebook revolutions of the Arab Spring? And Occupy Wall Street? #Ferguson and #BlackLivesMatter spread like wildfire, for God’s sake. You may think that I’m a luddite who [...]
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5 reasons why online Big Data is Bad Data for researching social movements

From French Resistance to hashtag activism: How our obsession with the extraordinary masks the power of the ordinary
I’ve become obsessed with “Un village français.” No, it’s not an idyllic town in Provence. It’s a French television series set during World War II. The show follows the residents of one French town as they navigate the German occupation. I tell myself that I am already into the 6th season (thank you, Netflix) because [...]
Big Data and the Survival of the Scientific Method
Five years ago, Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, wrote a provocative article entitled, “The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete” (2008). He argued that hypothesis testing is no longer necessary with google’s petabytes of data, which provides all of the answers to how society works. Correlation now “supercedes” causation. [...]
An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Is Facebook a Human Right?
Hi Mark, I just read your Facebook post: “Is Connectivity a Human Right?” and I thought I’d share my perspective (and answer) with you. First off, you’ve discovered that not every individual in this world has Internet access. Welcome. I’m a doctoral candidate in sociology up the road from you at UC Berkeley. Yeah, that [...]
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- 5 reasons why online Big Data is Bad Data for researching social movements
- From French Resistance to hashtag activism: How our obsession with the extraordinary masks the power of the ordinary
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