{"id":73007,"date":"2022-07-15T11:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T15:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=73007"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:54:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T17:54:44","slug":"why-words-are-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-words-are-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Words Are Important in Big Data Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why are words important? How does data use words?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Words have always been used as data, but big data allows researchers to study more words, especially on search engines. Without words, we wouldn&#8217;t be able to use search engines to discover the truth about people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn why words are important, according to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz in his book <em>Everybody Lies<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-words-words-words\">Words, Words, Words<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s nothing new about using words as data. As Stephens-Davidowitz points out, linguists, social scientists, historians, and others have studied words and word usage for a long time. But <strong>big data dramatically enhances the type and volume of words researchers can study<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephens-Davidowitz further explains why words are important in relation to data findings. He bases most of his insights and arguments on search terms used in Google and other search engines. Search engines\u2014and the databases of information they compile as users use them\u2014are a relatively recent invention and represent a new source (or <em>variety<\/em>) of data for researchers and analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephens-Davidowitz points out that computers also make it easy to analyze large volumes of text and\/or speech that would be difficult or impossible to deal with manually. For example, he cites a study of word frequency in Facebook status updates and shows how word usage breaks down among gender and age lines\u2014for example, perhaps unsurprisingly, he demonstrates that college-age people post about \u201cstudying\u201d during the \u201csemester\u201d whereas 20-somethings drink \u201cbeer\u201d when they aren\u2019t \u201cat_work.\u201d Similarly, he explains that researchers can use sentiment analysis to determine the overall emotional tone of a body of text.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: While Stephens-Davidowitz is excited about how academic researchers can use text analysis\u2014for example, he cites studies that use sentiment analysis to map narrative trajectories in works of fiction\u2014most of the practical application of these techniques seems to take place in the business world. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/towardsdatascience.com\/a-guide-text-analysis-text-analytics-text-mining-f62df7b78747\">businesses use text analysis<\/a>&nbsp; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brandwatch.com\/blog\/understanding-sentiment-analysis\/\">sentiment analysis<\/a> to gauge customer interest and reactions, detect problems early, and improve customer service.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A Brief History of Web Search<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Just how new is search data? The first search engine, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stackscale.com\/blog\/archie-internet-search-engine\/\">Archie<\/a>, was launched in 1990 as a relatively simple tool for searching public file servers (before Archie, the internet was indexed by hand). Throughout the 1990s, several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehistoryofseo.com\/The-Industry\/Short_History_of_Early_Search_Engines.aspx\">new search engines <\/a>emerged that allowed users to search the whole web like we\u2019re used to today. In 1998, Google introduced <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@nikhilbd\/how-did-google-surpass-all-the-other-search-engines-8a9fddc68631\">better search methods and other improvements<\/a> and quickly became the predominant search engine worldwide\u2014today, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oberlo.com\/statistics\/search-engine-market-share\">over 90% of web searches<\/a> are run through Google.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s unclear whether earlier search engines compiled search data the way Google does\u2014and early on, even Google <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20090720100059\/http:\/\/google.blognewschannel.com\/archives\/2007\/07\/30\/success-google-trends-updated\/\">didn\u2019t publish their search data regularly<\/a>. But in any case, it\u2019s hard to imagine Stephens-Davidowitz\u2019s research before Google. Even if earlier search engines had collected search data, that data would be spread across a handful of companies instead of centralized in one place. Likewise, none of those prior search engines had anywhere near the user base Google has today\u2014and it\u2019s the sheer amount and currency (<em>volume <\/em>and <em>velocity<\/em>) of information that makes Google\u2019s data useful for the kinds of studies in <em>Everybody Lies<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why are words important? How does data use words? Words have always been used as data, but big data allows researchers to study more words, especially on search engines. Without words, we wouldn&#8217;t be able to use search engines to discover the truth about people. Learn why words are important, according to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz in his book Everybody Lies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":55203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,25],"tags":[691],"class_list":["post-73007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-statistics","tag-everybody-lies","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Words Are Important in Big Data Studies - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If we didn&#039;t have words, we wouldn&#039;t be able to use search engines, where most people find information. 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