Week 7 round-up

In Week 7, we began to explore how big data might help us measure and improve our happiness.

Here’s a brief summary to help you prepare for Week 8.

You learned how George MacKerron created a smartphone app, Mappiness, to find out where and when people are happy all around the UK. You heard about a Facebook study which investigated whether emotions are contagious, by manipulating what Facebook users saw on their news feed. Thore Graepel also demonstrated that what we “like” on Facebook might give away all sorts of information about our personality, from how intelligent we are, to how satisfied we are with our lives.

These studies again raised important issues about privacy and the ethics of big data. It was great to read all your comments on where you thought the line should be drawn between what is acceptable for government and businesses to do and what you thought may be a step too far.

Finally, you started analysing Google Trends data in R and RStudio. You calculated the Future Orientation Index for the UK in 2012 yourselves. Well done!

This week, we move on to understanding how big data can help us measure where people are. Have a great week!