Who do you think knows your personality best? Perhaps your best friend or social media sites? I'd like to think my best friend knows me best, however, a study from 2015 claims otherwise. It shows that people’s personalities can be predicted by a computer. The researchers collected generic data from social media sites like Facebook Likes/Shares/Comments for 70,520 volunteers and compared it with a questionnaire that their friends filled out about them.
Then everyone was asked to take a personality questionnaire. When they compared the results, the computer’s predictions were more accurate than those made by the friends. You can read the full study here.
Now keep in mind that computers are getting better, while we humans stay the same and rely more and more on computers. Does that mean that we will start making personality judgments based on computer suggestions? How will that impact dating, politics, or even our career… Honestly, this is scary.
So if you don’t want computers to judge you, think about how much information you are sharing online. Is it really that important? You may think you have nothing to lose, but once people start judging you based on what a computer suggested, it will be hard to turn back.
Meanwhile, here’s a short video about what to share and not on social media.
