Kenneth Cukier’s views on big data focused mostly on the positives of it. While I can see how these aspects can be seen in a positive way, I agree more with his views of the “dark side” of big data. His two main arguments for this view are that, first, “we may be punished for predictions”. He references police using big data to try and stop crime by looking at in by looking into the individual characteristics of the criminal. But this could be a “human violation”. This is how I would see this example. These predictions could be presumptuous and if we are researching people and profile them based on what data says, we are making potentially incorrect assumptions about the person.

Cukier’s next point is that big data will help to steal out jobs, which makes sense because the more technology develops, the less we need people to perform tasks that the computers can now do. Cukier references this starting in blue collar jobs like assembly lines but it will also spread to white collar jobs as big data helps us develop technology. This can be a scary fact to face for many people who rely on these jobs.

After listening to these two podcasts, one question I would have is how big data is used specifically on social media. A lot of talk has been made about Facebook or other social media sites tailoring what we see to our individual preferences, and I would like to see more research and data about that area of big data.