YouAreWhatYouLike...

[thom]

If you have partake in that other site, Facebook, take a look at youarewhatyoulike to see what your "likes" say about you.
It has me down as Liberal and Artistic, Well Organised, Shy & Reserved, Calm and Relaxed and finally Warm, Trusting and Cooperative. I only take specific issue with the Well Organised aspect...

The analytics are based upon regression techniques and the things I "Liked". Makes you think what info can be garnered from the social interactions within this site...

One related study noted a connection between intelligence and the type of chips people prefer, so Crackle, if you want an idea for a not so inane, inane poll of the day, there's an idea.

 

[Fnaar]

Hmm, a bit interesting, but I notice it only used 82 of my 300+ 'likes', and it has me totally wrong in 2 things (I'm not competitive, and I am spontaneous, rather than planned).

You're right about the potential for garnering info, though I suspect this would be chiefly to push adverts at you, so that doesn't worry me, personally. However, I expect it (the other study you mention) to be yet another 'scare' story for those who have never tried or investigated facebook, yet feel qualified to tell us how it's an evil machine ready to rape our very souls .

(as an aside)
I really love using FB, and it has added something to my life, chiefly friendships made and rekindled, music I wouldn't have come across otherwise, and links to interesting other stuff. I have an eclectic brain that likes to hop from one thing to another, and FB suits me perfectly. I don't put up there what I had for dinner or moan about my bust hoover, so ...

 

[summerdays]

Well I don't think mine is correct apparently I'm: Conservative and traditional, Emotional, Well organized, Shy and reserved and Warm trusting and cooperative.

I disagree with at least some of those groupings (one of them I'm quite the reverse!!!)

 

[thom]

You're right about the potential for garnering info, though I suspect this would be chiefly to push adverts at you, so that doesn't worry me, personally. However, I expect it (the other study you mention) to be yet another 'scare' story for those who have never tried or investigated facebook, yet feel qualified to tell us how it's an evil machine ready to rape our very souls .

This is the study. I think it's purpose is to make people aware of what can be revealed about us from our online activity and perhaps take more care. There are very strong indicators for things like sexual orientation, gender, age, political leaning. Makes you think - I'm sure recruiters as well as advertisers are interested in this type of analysis.
There's an FT article too (likely paywalled) entitled "With Big Data Comes Responsibility".

Edit: one odd thing in the study was there was a signal the could identify 60% of the time if your parents stayed together until you were 21...

 

[Spinney]

Apparently I'm calm and relaxed, as opposed to stressed.

But that's based on it finding only 32 likes, and only using 4 of them! So really accurate then.

(I tend not to 'like' many things, to avoid getting too many notifications of things).

 

[postman]

that was quite an eye opener.

 

[thom]

Apparently I'm calm and relaxed, as opposed to stressed.

But that's based on it finding only 32 likes, and only using 4 of them! So really accurate then.

(I tend not to 'like' many things, to avoid getting too many notifications of things).

I think the reason for so few likes being included is that the analytics are based upon a US population, so probably the test sites/pages you like just don't overlap greatly with their benchmarks.

that was quite an eye opener.

Was it very accurate ?

 

[postman]

I think the reason for so few likes being included is that the analytics are based upon a US population, so probably the test sites/pages you like just don't overlap greatly with their benchmarks.


Was it very accurate ?

It was.

 

[postman]

Conservative and traditional
Well organized
Shy and reserved
Emotional
Warm trusting and cooperative.

 

[postman]

we did something like this at a Leaders meeting at Church.It was a lot more detailed and it is used by employers.It was so true as a 63 year old i found it quite unsettling,that from my answers so much could be found out about me.

 

[thom]

we did something like this at a Leaders meeting at Church.It was a lot more detailed and it is used by employers.It was so true as a 63 year old i found it quite unsettling,that from my answers so much could be found out about me.

I think this is going to lead to a lot of unease about online data and user privacy protection. Facebook have over 1 billion users, Google probably have data on many more...
There are certainly good uses of online data - google flu trends is a relatively famous example.

 

[Lee_M]

It got me almost totally wrong:

apparently I am
calm and relaxed - ha ha ha
shy and reserved - ho ho ho
well organized - guffaw
conservative and traditional - traditional yes, conservative nope

All in all about as polar from my reality as it is possible to get

 

[rich p]

Utterly wrong in my case - it said I was an attention seeking, short-arsed, beery, sweary, ugly pillock.

 

[thom]

Utterly wrong in my case - it said I was an attention seeking, short-arsed, beery, sweary, ugly pillock.

maybe it used your cyclechat info by mistake ?

 

[rich p]

maybe it used your cyclechat info by mistake ?

Why, I oughta....