(Image source: mashable)
Here’s something that might be new to some of you: Whatever you are doing on the Internet, they are being recorded and analyzed by companies, and are used to predict what you are going to do even before you know it.
Earlier this year, Amazon announced its newly patented service called “anticipatory shipping”, which delivers items to the warehouses close to customers before they really place orders. How does Amazon do it? Through analysis of customers’ historical orders, search history, items in shopping carts, and even the length of cursors staying on some items on Amazon’s website.
Likewise, Facebook recently released its relationship analytics on Valentine’s Day last week with a shocking claim that it knows when you are going to change your relationship status.
(Source: Facebook Data Science)
Interesting, but at the same time intimidating.
Based on data collected from 2010 to 2013, Facebook found that average posts between two partners reached to peak before they officially change their status into “In a relationship”. Observing the frequency of posts for 100 days before and after “Day 0” – the date the couple make their relationship official, Facebook’s data scientists found that the peak point comes 12 days before day 0, as 1.67 posts average, and after day 0, the number starts to decline.
An explanation to this is that couples are spending more time together in the physical world rather than keeping their interactions online.
(Source: Facebook Data Science)
Another gift Facebook gave us on V-Day this year is to show how long relationships might last.
Statistics from the Facebook Data Science team showed that if both partners are both 23 when relationships start (that is, changing their relationship status into “In a relationship”), more than half of the relationships that last more than 3 months will extend more than 4 years. Which means, the first 3 months are the toughest for a couple, and if the two make it through the beginning, chances are they will stay together in the end. The data does not include relationships that start as marriages.
As we leave more digital traces everyday, we are increasingly being monitored. Maybe it is a good idea to disconnect for a while after all.
Also read: I’ve seen the future in Singapore, and I have basically stopped using the social media
