{"id":87311,"date":"2019-04-20T13:19:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T20:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87311"},"modified":"2019-04-20T13:19:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T20:19:45","slug":"everybody-lies-a-book-on-big-data-benefits-of-digital-truth-serum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/20\/everybody-lies-a-book-on-big-data-benefits-of-digital-truth-serum\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everybody Lies\u2019, a book on Big Data: Benefits of Digital Truth Serum"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/strong>Rohana R. Wasala <\/strong>Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\u2018Everybody Lies – What the Internet Can Tell\nUs about Who We Really Are<\/strong>\u2019 (Seth Stephens – Davidowitz, London, Bloomsbury\nPublishing, Paperback edition, 2018, 338 pp, ISBN 978 – 1- 4088 – 9473 – 6) is\na book on Big Data (a term explained below), which introduces a still evolving\nsubject in an informal, entertaining manner. It was first published in Great\nBritain in 2017. Though the book is primarily addressed to an American\naudience, the author being an American (a New Yorker) and the basic subjects of\nhis study being Americans, it is also intended for a much more global\nreadership, which, in my opinion, it well deserves. I am left with the\nimpression that it would be of great appeal to interested general readers like\nme as well as internet data experts or data scientists like the author\nStephens-Davidowitz himself; it will also be of special interest to young\ncollege students who are looking forward to a career in Data Science.\n(Incidentally, it was while I was contemplating writing this review after\nreading the book a week or two ago that I came across a media news report from\nSri Lanka about some student agitators from the Sabaragamuwa\nUniversity there demonstrating near the Parliament roundabout, demanding an\nincrease in the number of admissions to the Social Sciences and Languages\nFaculty in their university. The relevance of this piece of news here is that\nthe development and illustration of Stephens-Davidowitz\u2019s ideas in this book\nare almost entirely in relation to the broad subject domains of social sciences\nand languages usually covered at university level anywhere in the world.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a New\nYork Times<\/em> journalist, a former visiting lecturer at the Wharton School of\nPennsylvania University, and a former data scientist at Google. He holds a BA\nPhi Beta Kappa in philosophy from Stanford and a PhD in economics from Harvard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That everybody lies is Seth\u2019s\nunflattering discovery about us common humans.  But he seems to have made\nan extra effort to reveal the truth about himself as a person, researcher and\nwriter. His wish to be candid about himself is evident throughout the text,\nwhich  incorporates personal details that touch on his interactions with\nhis family, friends, his tutors and colleagues, etc, particularly in the\nbeginning and the concluding  chapters,\nand in addition, in the \u2018Acknowledgements\u2019 section. He does not claim all the\ncredit for this product of  rigorous intellectual discipline and labour.\nHe describes the book as \u2018a team effort\u2019. It was obviously a large team. His\nparents are imlicitly included in that team. His mother Esther Davidowitz read\nthe entire manuscript a number of times, we are told, and helped \u2018dramatically\nimprove it\u2019. During a job interview, a professor grilled him: \u2018What does your\nmother think of  this work you do?\u2019 Seth explains why the professor asked\nhim this: \u2018The idea was that my mom would be embarrassed that I was researching\nsex and other taboo topics. But I always knew that she was proud of me for\nfollowing my curiosity, wherever it led\u2019 (as she always advised him to do). His\nfather Mitchell Stephens\u2019 involvement was perhaps even more important, for\nwithout him, Seth gratefully acknowledges, he could not have finished the book.\nThis was because, at one point, Seth felt \u2018deeply stuck, lost, and close to\nabandoning the project\u2019. So, the old man took his son to the country, and did\nwhat he could to restore his spirits. He discussed things such as love, death,\nsuccess, happiness, and writing with his son.The point Seth is making by this\nis that he is a normal imperfect human being who is very close to one or\nanother of us. But with the special insights we netizens gain from reading his\nbook, we would hardly allow ourselves to be unsuspecting guinea pigs of his\nexperiments!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seth adopts an easy, chatty,\ninformal style of writing, enlivened with a pleasant sense of humour, which\nmakes his extremelycomplicated and complex subject accessible to most readers.\nHe launches into his task with a short description of a certain family\nThanksgiving dinner table conversation in which the subject of choosing a\nsuitable bride for him, at thirty-three years of age already, crops up. Seth\u2019s\nsister, brother and father believe that he is crazy, but his mother doesn\u2019t\nthink so. The sister proposes that they look for a girl who is crazy like him\nto match his craziness, while the brother\u2019s suggestion is for a normal young\nwoman \u2018to balance him out\u2019. It is obvious that they are all passing judgement\non Seth based on what information (data) they possess about him. At this point,\nit is his soft-spoken  eighty-eight year old grandmother who joins in\nwith: \u2018Seth, you need a nice girl. Not too pretty. Very smart. Good with\npeople. Social, so you will do things. Sense of humour, because you have a good\nsense of humour.\u2019  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does this old woman\u2019s\nadvice command such respectful attention in his family?, Seth asks, and he\nanswers his own question: Having observed many marriages, some of which worked\nand some didn\u2019t, she has catalogued, over a long time, the personal qualities\nof marriage partners that contribute to successful relationships. She has had\naccess to the largest number of data points about the subject. In view of this,\nSeth says, his grandmother is Big Data. The grandmother analogy is in keeping\nwith his declared intention in this book, which is to \u2018demystify\u2019 data science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A data scientist mines the big data on the\ninternet\/web for four unique powers that, Seth claims, Big Data has. (It is\ngood to remember that the internet and the web are not identical, as we all\nknow; here, we are more concerned with the internet, which really is the\nvirtually limitless ever growing, ever renewing ocean of information.) He\nillustrates these characteristic strengths of big data through his analytical\ncomment on Sigmund Freud in Chapter 2 titled \u2018Was Freud Right?\u2019 Big data\nanalysis gives a more reliable method to understand the secretive human mind\nand the social reality than our intuition (\u2018our faulty gut\u2019, as Seth calls it)\nor conventional wisdom The powers of big data, according to Seth, are fourfold:\ni) it offers new types of data, e.g., pornographic material, ii) it provides\nhonest data; for example, porn data is not only new, but undisguised, iii) big\ndata enables us to zoom in on small subsets of people, and iv) big data allows\ndata scientists to do many causal<\/em> experiments, that is, it makes it\npossible for them to carry out rapid controlled experiments that focus on causality,\n<\/em>not on mere correlation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data science is the same\nconcept as Big Data. As it is a fast evolving field, it is not easy to find a\ncomprehensive definition of big data that is accessible to the general reader.\nThe following is a satisfactory enough explanation of Big Data adapted from the\nWikipedia (as of March 7, 2019): \u2018Big data refers to datasets that are too\nlarge or complex for traditional data processing application software to\nadequately deal with\u2026. Big data challenges include capturing data, data\nstorage, data analysis, search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, and\nupdating information privacy and data source\u2019. What Seth offers us in the book\nis data science in practice, so we experience a more concrete sense of the\nabstract notions involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seth starts his introduction\n with an explanation of what led to Donald Trump\u2019s surprise win at the\n2016 US presidential election in terms of data science. Most polling experts\nhad predicted that Donald Trump was going to lose. Seth, as a data scientist,\nmaintains that Trump\u2019s superior performance, both at the primaries and the\ngeneral election, was reflected in the internet data at the time. He concluded\nthat racism played a significant part in the Trump victory.  Seth arrived\nat this conclusion by scientifically analyzing the large number of Google\nsearches that Americans carried out privately during the relevant period. Seth\nimplies that the pollsters went wrong about the presidential election results\nbecause they missed lots of information that are available in the internet that\nwould have helped them understand many subjects including elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Seth claims to have\ndiscovered is that everybody lies. People lie about everything. Parents lie to\nchildren and vice versa, lovers lie to each other, husbands lie to wives, and\nwives to husbands, and so on. Why do people do that? It\u2019s because they want to\nlook good. That is why they lie about their own embarrassing behaviours and\nthoughts. This is called social desirability bias. Seth suggests that the\npollsters\u2019 failure to correctly predict Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 victory was\nprobably due to social desirability bias on the part of the voters surveyed;\nthat is, they lied in order to hide their racist prejudice against Barak Obama.\nNot only do people lie to others, they lie to themselves! People say they don\u2019t\nwant to stalk their friends. But the truth is that they always want to keep up\nwith their friends and judge them, a fact that Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder of\nFacebook, made use of  to become a multi-billionaire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second power of big data\nalready mentioned above is that it provides honest data. Certain online sources\nget people to admit things that they would not reveal anywhere else. Similarly,\nthere is a tendency for them to be truthful in their private Google searches\nand responses. They provide an incentive for people to tell the truth.\n For example, if someone is suffering from depression they may be\nunwilling to reveal this to a survey, but they will have an incentive to make\nGoogle searches for symptoms of depression and suitable remedies for it with no\nfear of being exposed to possible social stigma on this account.  Datasets consisting of such searches and\nresponses provide a good source of information for data experts to explore in\norder to reveal the inner nature of the human mind and the hidden reasons that\naccount for inexplicable social realities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephens-Davidowitz holds that,\non the average, \u2018digital truth serum\u2019 tells us that the world is worse than we\nthink it is. However, according to him, this knowledge can improve our lives in\nthree ways: 1) it can be comforting to know that you are not alone in your\ninsecurities and embarrassing behaviours; he updates the well known self-help\nquote \u2018Never compare your insides to everyone else\u2019s outsides\u2019 thus: \u2018Never\ncompare your Google searches to everyone else\u2019s social media posts\u2019; 2) it\nalerts us to people who are suffering; the Human Rights Campaign has asked Seth\nto work with them in helping them to educate men in certain states to come out\nof the closet (this is a reference to gay men); child-abuse victims can also be\nhelped through Big Data; and 3) its ability to lead us from problems to\nsolutions is perhaps the most powerful value in the digital truth serum: \u2018With\nmore understanding, we might find ways to reduce the world\u2019s supply of nasty\nattitudes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lankacnews.com online\njournal carried news about two scandalous episodes involving some members of\nthe Sri Lankan FB community. The later report was about a YouTube video that\nshowed a wife-beating incident that had taken place some seven months ago, but\nthat the victim had remained passive about at the time; now, however, she feels\nbitterly aggrieved at it, while the offending male contemptuously dismisses the\nconcerns expressed on her behalf by the \u2018avajaathakayin\u2019 (ill-bred busybodies)\nwho, allegedly, are raising a hue and cry about it in the social media. It is\nshocking that this young man who not only beat up his wife or living together\npartner while allegedly videoing it calls the critics of his actions ill-bed\u201d.\nI, for one, wish the local no-violence-against-women campaigners took immediate\naction. Both of these young people seem to be in need of help. Violence against\nwomen is a global problem, and it figures in Big Data activity. Readers of\n\u2018Everybody Lies\u2019 will find much to read about the subject and countless other\nproblems that afflict the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earlier reported incident\nwas datelined the same day it happened or it had happened the day before. The\nnews was published in the lankacnews website on April 7, 2019. It is about a\ncelebratory event held to mark the Sinhala Aluth Avurudda, a traditional cultural\nfestival of great antiquity, at Campbell Park, Colombo. The activity had been\norganized by some young Facebookers. Traditional games, trials of strength for\nfun, and other forms of recreation, especially among young men and women,\n that go on for days sometimes, are part and parcel of the celebrations\nconnected with the Aluth Avurudda. The young Facebook activists reportedly\nintroduced a new, previously unheard of, item named \u2018kukkubeeme tharangaya\u2019 or\na \u2018suckling match\u2019 during which, as a photo shows, two young men were sucking\nat bottles, seemingly containing milk, held by two young women in their armpits\nclose to their breasts, as if they were \u2018suckling\u2019 those two \u2018babies\u2019,\n(something, needless to say, that would have been outrageously offensive to the\ntraditional cultural sensitivities of the Sinhalese, who are the principal\ncelebrants of the festival,  had it been staged in the more conservative\nrural areas; it has triggered a lot of adverse comments within the Facebook\ncommunity itself).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018suckling match\u2019 novelty\nresonates with, or even confirms, something unexpected that Stephens-Davidowitz\nhas encountered through Big Data analysis. He says that he sometimes hits upon\na new dataset that reveals a behavior, desire or a concern that he would have\nnever even considered. There are many sexual propensities that fall into this\ncategory. For example, in India, the number one Google search beginning my\nhusband wants\u2026.\u201d is my husband wants me to breastfeed him\u201d! According to Seth,\nthis comment is far more common in India than in other countries. He further\nsays that \u2018porn searches for depictions of women breastfeeding men are four\ntimes higher in India and Bangladesh than in any other country in the world\u2019.\nThe same observation might apply to Sri Lanka. I don\u2019t know whether the\n\u2018suckling match\u2019 reveals an existing sexual aberration, diversion, perversion,\npsychotic condition, or some other diseased state among young Sri Lankans. But\nthere is no doubt that it is culturally unacceptable behaviour for most Sri\nLankans irrespective of ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Data analysis has infinite\npotential to help us improve our private and social lives, and the country as a\nwhole by revealing strange but powerful hidden truths about ourselves and our\nsociety. However, as Stephens-Davidowitz cautions us, Big Data must be handled\nwith care. For there are dangers too, intrinsically associated with it. Of\nthese, two are prominent. These he characterizes as empowered corporations and\nempowered governments. The terms are self-explanatory, and Sri Lankans are too\nfamiliar with the harmful consequences of both to need any explicit\nelaboration.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island \u2018Everybody Lies – What the Internet Can Tell Us about Who We Really Are\u2019 (Seth Stephens – Davidowitz, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, Paperback edition, 2018, 338 pp, ISBN 978 – 1- 4088 – 9473 – 6) is a book on Big Data (a term explained below), which introduces a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}