Why Should I Care About Data?

In this section, we have learned about why we should care about data. We discussed how data is produced and generated constantly, everywhere. And we explored how advancements in digital technology have turned data into one of the world’s most valuable resources, a development we’re only just starting to see the effects of.

Data is now a basis for major government decisions, but it’s also part of our everyday lives, such as when we are going for a jog. Data is everywhere, high and low and omnipresent. This explosive development can be explained using the concepts of datafication and digital transformation.

We examined what data is, where it comes from, and how it’s much more than just numbers on a spreadsheet. Data can be symbols, images, sound, and even observations or written notes. Emotions and behaviour can become data too!

We also learned how data has a life cycle—a journey that follows data from its creation, through collecting and interpreting—to eventually gaining value. Understanding the stages of the data life cycle can be really helpful, and it’s something we’ll come back to later in this course.

Data is incredibly valuable and can provide us with information we can use to solve many problems. But what kind of data do you create, more specifically, and what happens to it?

In the next section, we’ll look more closely at how we categorise data, what forms it can take, and how data can be used to create a digital shadow that follows you around.