Data story

Transcript

1. Journey through the hype cycle of a toxic algorithmic relationship A speculative data story by Jemima Collins
2. October: Expectation I’ve never felt like this before. I no longer feel like an anonymous figure obscured, muted, submerged in a crowd of charismatic competitors. At last I get my spot in the limelight, as the exclusive subject of your undivided attention. There couldn’t have been a better time for you to come into my life. Now I wake up every day with a renewed sense of optimism and strength to take on the challenges that lie ahead. I’m so lucky to have you.
3. December: Embrace What a magical semester it’s been! When it started, my hopes were at an all-time high and suffice to say they’ve been anything but dampened. ‘Ah yes. That magical yet notoriously unsustainable honeymoon period’, I hear them say. Well, they can keep their cynicism. I’ve never felt like this before. You have this uncanny ability to take the words right out of my mouth and the thoughts right out my head. I can’t express how much I cherish not having to explain myself, prove myself, fight to make myself knowable, worthy of being known. You already seem to know me better than I know myself. Or at least I see you fast approaching that target. Insatiable for knowledge of me. And the more I give you, the more I get in return and the more I have to give. A virtuous cycle of reciprocal knowledge-sharing, intimate understanding, interdependence, companionship, care. No longer alone.
4. February: Disillusionment Things have changed. Our once effortlessly harmonious partnership has become strained, discordant, jarring. Everywhere I go, I sense your presence in close proximity. These days, rarely more than an hour passes before my independence is interrupted by a message here, a notification there, a reminder here or a nudge there. On go the invasive interventions, and on and on and on… I long for a place of sanctuary, solitude and serenity, but everywhere I go, you insistently follow, insinuating yourself into every facet of my existence. ‘I’m doing it because I know you, I understand you, I care about you, I want the best for you, and I know what’s best for you’, you assert. And for a while I believed it to be true. But you’ve been off the mark too many times and refused to accept when you’ve got it wrong, continuing to play your tiresome mantra on repeat: ‘I know you and I know what’s best for you’.
5. April: Enlightenment Relief. Liberation. Clarity! They warned me not to pull the plug on you too hastily. Told me you were designed to act in my best interests, so without you my prospects could suffer and I may live to regret your departure. But if you ask me as I rightfully deserve to be asked, I’ll tell you that it’s the best decision of my life so far. Ever since I opted out of our relationship and took back control of my educational destiny, the fog of seduction and dependency has lifted and I’ve realised that your oppressive insistence on knowing everything about me gave you the power to claim authority over my future. Now with that power, authority and sense of self reclaimed, I’ve finally found my sweet spot, which lies unsurprisingly somewhere between stifled anonymity and suffocating hypervisibility. Bring on next semester!
6. Story inspired by prompts in Data Stories Creator (Ross et al., 2020) Ross, J., Wilson, A., McKie, J., Collier, A. and Lockley, P. (2020). Co-designing with speculative data stories: Data stories creator. Available at: http://datastories.de.ed.ac.uk /datastories/newstory/
7. Responses to prompts in Data Stories Creator (Ross et al., 2020) Ross, J., Wilson, A., McKie, J., Collier, A. and Lockley, P. (2020). Co-designing with speculative data stories: Data stories creator. Available at: http://datastories.de.ed.ac.uk /datastories/newstory/