I was researching the causes for morning eye-redness , and the internet gifted me a beautiful answer. In short, this person listed out a few common causes for eye-redness, and then proceeded to explain that none of these might be the actual cause of the problem. He concluded by saying, “go visit an actual Ophthalmologist. Don’t make medical decisions based on answers given on Quora. I might just be an out-of-work plumber”.
Money
I read an article in the paper today. It was about BIG DATA. I don’t know why I typed that in all caps. Maybe its’s to incite FEAR. Is it working? RELATIONSHIP, COMMITMENT, RENT, UNEMPLOYMENT!
Scary words. Anyway, the article had all the fancy quotes. “Data is the new oil”, “You are the product”, “Google needs to pay”. So here’s the deal. We know all these companies are profiting off of everyone who browses the internet. They study people’s online activity and make calculated assumptions. Assumptions, that other companies are willing to pay big money for. It helps them sell their products better. For example, if you search for a kitchen knife online, google tells its friend, amazon, that someone’s in the mood for some cooking. Amazon quickly sends you a mail about all that sexy kitchenware it has to offer. That’s right. All those condom ads on YouTube, appear for a reason.
It’s not just marketing. Companies study behavioural patterns. Entertainment companies want to know which parts of a movie excites you the most, so that they can make better movies. So, all this is fine. We already know that this is happening. What intrigues me is that the author went on to say that these companies need to start paying people for the data they collect. So that means, Google has to pay me for allowing it to study my interest in 90s cartoons.
I don’t know how I feel about that. It’s like getting paid for giving up privacy.
For no reason, here’s some music.
Random Thought Beam 