Data is Devouring the World

Data and information have infested every hour of our day. What are the effects of this?

Oct 21, 2024

Hello Friends 👋

Welcome to another edition of Project 21st. I'm about to begin recording a new podcast series on the Gospel account of Jesus Christ, according to John. Before I began podcasting this, I was struck with imposter syndrome that I shouldn't be podcasting about the Bible because I'm not educated enough to do that.

It led me down a path of data and information and how our world is overrun by so much of it. The fact that I can record a podcast or write an article and instantly send it to you is mindblowing - but so can everyone else.

Thus, before I recorded the podcast, I wanted to examine the weight of all the data and information we are bombarded with daily.

I hope you enjoy these words!

Below are some no-context data points for you:

6% of Americans claim they can beat a grizzly bear in unarmed combat
Dragonflies have a 95% hunting success rate, making them the most effective hunters in the world
The risk of a heart attack is about 20% greater on Mondays for adult men
Motorcycles account for 2% of all vehicles in the United States; motorcycles account for 20% of all road fatalities
34% of adults and 75% of children sleep with a stuffed animal or a blanket
18% of all boating accidents are caused by people trying to urinate over the side
In the US, if one graduates high school, gets married, and has children in that order, one has a 97% chance of never living in poverty.
90% of the people live in the Northern Hemisphere
25% of crimes happen at a gas station after 10:00 p.m.
70% of all statistics are false

Source: Reddit

This data is stimulating to the mind, if nothing else. After reading each one, you can't help but theorize how the data could be true. Then, we read the name of the source—Reddit.

Truthfully, I consult Reddit a lot these days. Why? Because Reddit users consistently provide me with good data and recommendations. I know how to trust the source because I have experience with several recommendations being true… But that doesn't change the fact that the other side of this "primary source" of data is a random person behind a keyboard.

Our world revolves around strangers and algorithms continually feeding us data. What was once a topic exclusively reserved for your next work meeting, data now lives and breathes in almost every facet of life. All hours of the day have turned into a measurable event, and much like this Reddit post, we robotically take shots of data until we're numb to its effects.

However, data is meaningless unless it can be interpreted by humans as understandable information. After that, it's up to the interpreter to decide whether the information is relevant. I chose to consume the Reddit information, but I can confidently say not a single data point is pertinent to my life.

Even though it's irrelevant, guess what this shot of information produces in me? A want for more. I can mask it with the label of wanting to be more "informed" all I want, but truth be told, I'm addicted to information. This post aims to examine our data addiction and determine how to have a healthier relationship with the information it produces.

Data's Burden

There is a reason people gravitate toward a body of water in the summer when it's 95 degrees. Not only does it cool you down, but it also provides a unique opportunity for our land-dwelling selves to immerse themselves in the element of water.

Whether you're in a lake or an ocean, it's intimidating to look down and not be able to see an end beneath you. Once you finally get comfortable floating around, an unknown water creature loves introducing itself to your leg at what feels like 40 miles per hour. Yet, we endure the risk of being in the water because it's really refreshing to our bodies.

Humans have continued to push the limits of how far below we can go in the ocean's vast depths. Freediving is an activity(?) where a line is tied to a boat and then dropped straight down, and a person attempts to see how far down the rope they can dive without an oxygen mask. Every freediver has to fight the euphoria they feel as they dive deeper and lose their conscious reality. Someone on the boat will pull at the line, indicating the diver needs to come up if they feel concerned. Once a diver ascends back to the surface, the rapid change in pressure release of carbon dioxide in the body and reintroduction of oxygen forces the diver to blackout and hyperventilate for a moment.

We're currently freediving in an ocean of data. I can't help but think the rope is being pulled, and we're ignoring the warning signs and living in the euphoria of data. As I stated in the introduction, consuming data and information is satisfying, but I think the pressure of data is quickly harming us.

New Responsibilities

Peter Drucker was a famous business consulting guru who wrote many books on effectively running an organization. He has a quote, "What gets measured gets managed," in reference to organizations' thinking about data. On the surface, it seems like a harmless quote, but if you've ever been involved in trying to manage multiple data points, it can turn into a very burdensome process.

In theory, there's no end to what an organization can measure and, therefore, no end to what it can manage. The same is true in our lives—the more data we allow ourselves to process, the more we feel the burden of trying to make sense of that data.

This can look very different for people. For example, you might be able to manage it better, but one reason I don't have an Apple Watch is that I don't want another device tracking my data and constantly burdening me with information.

An Apple Watch is a tangible example of data overtaking our lives. Still, we also have the unconscious example of data collection burdening us: data of our peers through social media. I have insight on way(yyyyyy) too many people and their life status. This is not me saying, "Stop posting about your life." it's an acknowledgment of the large amounts of data I can collect from 30 minutes on social media.

As I collect data on anyone I see, the next step is processing that into information, which is usually an assumption that's true or false about the person. Unfortunately, this information must be managed, so we store it in our brains. Yes, we store away someone from high school we haven't seen in 10 years getting a puppy with the assumption, "Should I get a puppy, too?"

Last summer, I wrote a series of posts called Digital Addiction about my struggle with digital devices. An underlying cause of this addiction is wanting to numb my mind with other information instead of being present and concentrating on something happening in the moment. The double negative to this is when the information we're consuming gets stored away to be managed, creating a new responsibility, whether consciously or unconsciously. Thus, the burden grows.

Data's Power

Marc Andreessen, a technology venture capitalist, is famous for his 2011 article, "Why Software Is Eating the World." In it, Andreessen explains how the cost to run a simple internet application has substantially decreased over time, to the point where in 2011 (and even more true in 2024), anyone with an internet connection could launch an internet application without a significant financial barrier to entry. Since then, this has unfolded in our lives as every business and industry uses software.

But what does software truly solve? Why have we chosen this path of software eating the world?

One reason is because of the information it produces through data. If software is eating the world, it's because data is devouring the world.

A software application receives data inputs (likely in the form of text) and produces data outputs. It can be as simple as the coffee shop I'm currently at inputting the 10 ~ honey pumpkin-spice lavender graham-cracker cinnamon ~ lattes they have sold today and outputting a daily sales report or as complex as a nuclear power plant trying to measure the kilowatt hours by concentration of reactor sites.

This process demonstrates the fundamentals of information technology, more commonly known as "IT." Technology has revolutionized the way that information is spread. In 100 years, we've gone from information lagging across multiple days to jamming plastic in our ears and pressing play to receive information instantly. This is truly incredible, but our data habits have been like those of a college freshman at the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet in the dining hall (guilty).

We have to learn how to harness the power of data.

Prescribe Your Data

In the introductory Reddit example, some users provided sources of scientific research to validate their statistics, while others presented the data without any sources. One night, as I was reading these off to my wife, every few statistics, she would interject and say, "There's no way that's true." But if I could respond with, "Well, actually, here's the scientific study to support it, " she would struggle to argue further.

So, is all scientific research true? Maybe, but in this instance of someone asking a question on Reddit, "What is the most interesting statistic you know?" Almost every statistic is being presented out of context. For the stat of 25% of crimes happening at a gas station after 10:00 p.m., was this for one particular town? Is this for one year or a span of years? And the questions could go on and on…

We must examine data in the correct context in order to truly produce useful information. It's scary how one data point can influence our entire worldview, and it's even scarier how one data point can drive our decision-making.

I don't think I've bought something over $50 without looking at reviews online. While that's fine and preferable, I always end up obsessing over several reviews and spending hours comparing products and reviews. Apply this to multiple aspects of our lives, and we're spending so much time analyzing data.

In order for us to build healthier habits, let's begin by asking ourselves these questions:

Is this data relevant to what I'm trying to accomplish?
Will this data materially change a decision?
Does the projected outcome outweigh the effort to process this data?
Am I willing to manage this data - whether consciously or unconsciously?
Will this data have a positive influence on my life?

Contrary to the tone of the article to this point, this is not a hit piece of data, as most of the data we consume can answer yes to these questions. Data has allowed humans to do unimaginable things that couldn't be considered before its mass adaptation. But there still remains the fact that we're human, and we must learn to prescribe our data in doses. The more we allow the power of data - good or bad - to devour us, the more we remove ourselves from the truth of reality and start to mimic robots and algorithms. And that's not who we were created to be.

Data's Truth

At this point, someone in opposition might say," Why do we have to be cautious of our relationship with data if it seems to only make humans more intelligent, informed, logical, and analytical, and the only downside is this immeasurable burden?"

To that, I would say, "How do we know the 'progress' of data and everything it's produced is actually beneficial?" Only data that points back to absolute truth has any relevance in the end, and with the rate of change in the world, previously proven data and information get falsified by the minute.

Yet, the Bible continues to stand the test of time as the absolute truth all data and information point to. On the outside, the Bible seems like a long read with a lot of information. While true, the book's premise is straightforward - just like any other long novel. You don't have to read all the Harry Potter books to know the condensed plot is about (spoiler alert!) a boy wizard who succeeds in stopping an evil wizard from becoming immortal and an evil ruler.

But ask any Harry Potter fan if simply knowing that one sentence is enough to understand the whole story, and they would laugh and exclaim, "That barely scratches the surface of all the beautiful details the story has to offer!"

Similarly, the Bible is about humanity choosing sin and God saving us from sin by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins and then resurrecting back to life and ascending into heaven so that we may live a life of faith in Jesus and join Him one day in the new heaven and new earth.

Still, every Bible includes thousands of other pages of information in addition to that one sentence. I'm convinced one could spend a lifetime meticulously dissecting scripture, and they would not come close to fully realizing God's glory in His work. Every time I spend 5, 10, 30, or 60 minutes with the Lord, He is always speaking to me.

Although, reading the Bible is not the only spiritual discipline Christians should follow. I want to tread carefully here, as I don't want this point to be misconstrued as "reading the Bible too much is bad," but even Christians can fall into a trap of consuming too much data and information about the Bible and as a result making knowledge about God the object of their faith.

Beware of the Idol

We now have more data and information about the Bible than ever before. I can open Bible Gateway or Blue Letter Bible and cross-reference scripture, look up commentaries, or look at different translations for the rest of my life and not exhaust all there is to know. Likewise, I've been listening to the BEMA Discipleship and Bible Project podcast for the past four years and have gained more knowledge of God than I could imagine. Even further, I can take seminary courses from The Master's Seminary for free on YouTube.

With all the resources available, anyone can know who God is. But Jesus calls us into a much deeper relationship than simply knowing His name and His work. He wants our hearts to be transformed so that we can show Christ's love.

I would say this is the biggest struggle in my faith journey at the moment. I'm so tempted to continue to know more about God, which again is not bad, but my heart is not really being transformed if I'm not living His word out in my life.

Jesus was consistently in conflict with Jewish leaders who knew the law and everything about God, but they were not practicing God's way. He has a big encounter with the Jewish Pharisees in Matthew Chapter 23 and delivers seven woes to them. Below are the first four verses and then one of the woes:

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them…
25 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."

Jesus never condemns the poor, outcast, disabled, unclean, or anyone else that we would show partiality to. Instead, he condemns the religious elite, who are the only people who have the very word of God in front of them every day (printing press was not invented in the 1400s - so only hand written copies of Torah were available) but were not living out its teaching. Woe to us today who have every resource there is to have about the Bible, and claim to be followers of Jesus, but continue to not show the love of Christ - me especially.

Before ascending into heaven, Jesus doesn't say to his disciples, "Alright, now go hide and study the words I have given you the rest of your days." Instead, He says to them in Matthew chapter 28:

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

He calls the disciples to go and teach and spread the word! Yes, these are the apostolic fathers who would go on to start the global church movement that Christians are a part of today, so the calling is distinct, but those same early Christians who Jesus charged with this message wrote the same mission to us in the rest of the New Testament!

A practical example is before me as I write this at a coffee shop. There are two high school girls doing Bible study. They set a 20-minute timer and dove into a passage of scripture. When the timer went off, they both exhaled in unison with a "Whoa" as they were filled with what the Holy Spirit showed them. They spent several minutes sharing what the Holy Spirit put on their hearts. It was beautiful… but is the Bible study diluted because they only shared data and information about God?

Absolutely not! Knowing God and studying His word is an essential discipline—a gift that we get to enjoy. But after the Bible study ends, we enter back into the world where we're faced with putting His words into action. If all we are are processors of data and information about who God is and don't let His word transform our hearts, then we begin to look a lot more like Pharisees than Jesus.

Breaking Data's Addiction

The objector would say, "So are we supposed to just remove ourselves from the world and avoid all data and information that isn't about Jesus?"

Of course not! God calls us into the world; not everyone is called into ministry. Thus, a part of our calling is to share Jesus's name in our places of work, and that would be difficult if we were bad employees who didn't work hard in our careers. Even if data is devouring the world, we must still utilize it where necessary.

But our focus is currently at 0.5x, and we are mindlessly consuming all the data and information out there. We must begin to zoom in on the shot and focus on what is important. This will eliminate all the noise and distraction of unnecessary data and information.

Then, we can start to break the addiction of data and information. We can objectively analyze places where we give our time and attention and ask, "Is this going to end up burdening me?" or any of the other questions we discussed above. Ultimately, my prayer is that we get to a place where we say, "Is this data and information going to help me glorify God in any way, or is it going to distract me more from my relationship with Him?"

That's when the burden of data ends, and true freedom begins.

Project 21st