I get the strong feeling like the virus outbreak is being used to track data on how populations are responding to crisis. Purchasing habits, what information from social media are taken and ran with, what mass media taglines generate response

submitted by la_cues from self.OpenForum

all 3 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]astronautrob 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Totally agree with this feeling. It almost seems like it's a test run to see what can get the public in a frenzy. Seeing how we react, what we do, buy, etc., is great data to show what a huge population would do in this type of crisis. I think a lot of people are poo-pooing on this outbreak, especially on this site, but it's not about the Coronavirus itself but more so about how easy it is to drum up panic when you control the narrative by the media. I can understand the panic somewhat but they way they are "reporting" on the virus, especially in "mainstream"media, shows that they aren't trying to report facts only trying to drum up more panic. I have read some articles mostly from local news sources that have been helpful and not panic inducing but not that doesn't happen with the big media outlets.

[–]useless_aether 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

big data collects everything all the time to feed the ever improving ai algos

[–]astronautrob 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Although this is true it doesn't mean anything. Yes they collect data all the time but collecting data during a crisis or panic is a different matter. You're going to get different data obviously. So saying that they collect data all the time really isn't saying anything at all.