This time we are mostly talking about those online. I am not an expert but in the past 14 years online (even before social media as such) I've been watching the ways people interact, forms groups and develop loyalties online, in my case entirely with the on and off curiosity of a layman. So I can just imagine the amount of material that is available to psychologists and social scientists.
Now the study of human behaviour is heading the same way. Social scientists have long had to rely on crude questionnaires or interviews to gather data to test their theories; methods marred by reporting bias and small survey sizes. For decades, the field has been looked down upon by some as a poor cousin to the hard sciences. The digital age is changing all that - practically overnight, the study of human behaviour and social interactions has switched, from having virtually no hard data to drowning in the stuff. As a result, an entirely different approach to social science has emerged, and studies based on it are appearing with increasing frequency. The impact has been remarkable.
Read more at www.newscientist.com
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