Little data: negotiating the ‘new normal’ with idiosyncratic and incomplete datasets

ABSTRACT

In this paper we make a case for ‘Little Data’, which is real-time, self-collected, idiosyncratic datasets maintained by individuals about themselves on myriad topics. We develop and offer a methodology for combining these messy, highly personal insights, to make deductive observations about collective practices. In testing this approach, we use the case study of the 2020–21 stay-at-home orders imposed in the U.S.A., U.K., and Western Europe during the Coronavirus pandemic to operationalise and demonstrate the applicability of this method. Our main finding is to show that whilst stay-at-home orders did have a significant impact on habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, these changes were often counterintuitive, of an insightful nature on topics that would otherwise not be investigated, and always short-lived. Our main contribution is to present Little Data, despite and because of its fragmented and disparate nature, as a viable and useful tool to understand personal habits at finite junctures.

KEYWORDS:

• Big Data
• little Data
• tracking
• lifelogging
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jack Denham

Jack Denham is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at York St. John University. His work has focused on the cultural consumption of crime, violence, and death in many forms, from murderabilia – to video games. More recently, his work addresses the social functions of gaming, particularly with relation to education and mental health. Past published methodological insights have included the incorporation of elicitation into data collection methods for video gaming. Jack is the co-director of the Death & Culture Network and the Interactive Gaming Research Group.

Matthew Spokes

Matthew Spokes is Associate Dean for Social Sciences at York St. John University, and the co-director of the Interactive Games Research Group. His research explores the connections between interactive entertainment, death and spatial theory. He has previously published on environmental mortality, space and power in open world video games, structural violence in game narratives, and innovative approaches to interviewing methods. His most recent book is Gaming and The Virtual Sublime: Rhetoric, Awe, Fear and Death in Contemporary Video.