Pretty Data: Stupid Data: Useless Data

There are things in this world that get me incoherently pissed off.

• Lunatics
• Wingnuts
• Liars
• Conspiracy Nutjobs
• and a few more…

I saw this article about the past and future of data consumption from Baekdal.com.   Take a look at this very lovely graph about information consumption through the ages:

Firstly, let me clarify and set the context for my upcoming rant.

I like this graph, it attempts to show media consumption across the century in a way that shows a trend towards more personalized and targeted consumption.  It’s intuitive, it makes sense and it confirms what professional interwebbers tend to think about the shift of media.

Here’s the problem.  The article clearly states…

“We are seeing an entirely new way for people to interact. One that makes all traditional ways seem silly. It is a fundamental shift, and it will completely change the world as we know it. And the best thing about it is that you get to help make it happen.”

That’s a damn bold statement when the data in the graph, to the best of my knowledge, isn’t measuring a DAMN THING!!  Am I supposed to take this crap seriously?  In every single graph I’ve ever made, it’s had at least two data points to compare.  It could be time vs. hot dogs eaten… it could be hang time vs. distance the ball was thrown.  That’s the point of a graph.  It compares data in relationship with each other.  In this graph, all we have is time… in years… that’s it.

How is this information going to transform the world as we know it when half of the damn data is undefined?  Because the “Y” axis is undefined, I was trying to think of some things that it could be:

• Number of media readership/ viewership/ subscribers
• Amount of media units sold or distrubuted
• Revenue generated

You see?  This graph is pretty, stupid and useless.  You can put in whatever data you want and you’d be right!  The author doesn’t release any of the methodology, doesn’t release or define what exactly he’s measuring and he’s put together one of those graphs that tons of people will love, copy and put into powerpoint presentations to VC’s as they’re trying to fund their latest Adsense based project.

Bullshit.

The article makes the claim that “Traditional Is Dead”.  He doesn’t define “dead”.  Is TV traditional?  Magazines?  He starts talking about intelligent data emerging.  It’s a big nebulous, fuzzy concept that’s again, not really defined.  Intelligent data will break it out and extract the valuable parts:

“Instead of reading 5 different articles on the same topic, you will be presented with one, highlighting the vital point of interest.”

Again, Bullshit.

The reason I read 5 different articles on the same topic is to capture different and sometimes opposing views of the event.  If this “intelligent data” dren comes through to me, it sounds like it would come pre-loaded with all of my biases and pre-suppositions.  In other words, if I believe the world was created 6,000 years ago in 6 days, the intelligent data systems will capture my history and traffic/ data tendencies and feed me more of the same information that I’ve already consumed.

Last part of the rant:

He mentions gaming as a way of capturing information.  He responds with this:

About gaming and its relatively small influence. First of all, the gaming industry, and more importantly, the time people spend with it is going to be huge. We already see this trend today, where many people now spend more time playing games, than watching TV.

So why does it not take up more space in the graph?

“The thing is that the information value you get from games is lower then when interacting with direct information using Social news etc. Spending 5 minutes on Twitter might give you the more insight and information, then playing 6 hours in a game. The importance of games is low, even if it takes up a lot of people’s time.”

This is completely misinformed.  I can consume movies, music, audio, news and other forms of media through Xbox Live.  My Wii has a news section that’s automatically downloaded via wireless.  PSN will have Home, a virtual social world that’s supposed to integrate many aspects of our digital lives.  He completely misses that point that the consoles have evolved to such a point where it’s not just shooty-shooty-bang-kapow anymore.  They’ve become a central piece in our digital entertainment and media consumption habits.

/endrant

Pretty Data: Stupid Data: Useless Data