Articles tagged as "data"

We consume and generate, a lot of information per day. With more people using the internet and generating data around the world, there will be even more communication: more emails sent, more articles written, and more data to store and recall. During the period 2011 through 2021, the percentage of individuals worldwide using the internet almost doubled, from 31.2% to 59.6% [1]. People are joining the interconnected infrastructure of the modern web at a blistering pace, and yet there are still billions more that remain unconnected. When they too join the global network, we can expect even more ideas to join the chorus.

The last two decades have brought about a transformation in how we think about data. Social media primed us to believe that sharing is great, from our breakfast to our wedding. Data intensive applications necessitated cloud technology, and now it’s harder than ever to keep track of where we’ve left our digital footprint. The World Economic Forum estimated that in 2020 we would collectively produce 44 zettabytes of data per day, and this value is bound to only trend upwards. Although artificial intelligence provides hope in being able to sort through all this information, at present we are dealing with an infodemic, not just in disease information as the World Health Organization defines the term, but in all aspects of life. Data has become so ubiquitous as to often become meaningless.