Data mining

 Data mining is one of those hot-button topics that everyone has an opinion about--opinions which are almost never positive. To be fair, it’s hard not to feel wary about some weird software on a website that keeps track of your data, and it doesn’t help that it has the most suspicious-sounding name possible. Seriously, “data mining?” That term reminds me of those lame-but-cool-rebel-hackers in bad action movies who can gain instant access to your computer files with a mere click of a button. Of course, reality tends to be far less glamorous than the movies: “data mining,” at least as it is used in social media research, can be used for practical research purposes. Still, I find that many people still have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the topic, likely because they associate the process with websites like Amazon using their information to recommend products similar to ones they have previously bought (a big problem if you’re susceptible to buyer’s remorse). Those aren’t unreasonable complaints, but the truth is that data mining can be utilized for multiple purposes, some good and some bad; as a result, it’s important to be mindful.