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 […]
Big Data is Too Small: How the Digital Divide Leaves People Out
In my post on PBS.org’s MediaShift, I contend that Big Data is Too Small. I will also be giving a talk on the topic at the American Sociological Association’s Annual Meeting on August 13 in New York. Here’s the lede: “The utopian hype over Big Data is being critiqued on many fronts. After all, it isn’t that new. […]
