The Survey

Businesses and organizations will go to great lengths to capture our opinions and turn them into data.

If you’ve been on one of the main streets of a major city, you’ve likely run into energetic young people who want to interview you on a topic about which they are passionate.

“Pardon me, do you have a few minutes to take a survey about the rain forest?”

Most of us politely decline, just like we tend to hang up when someone calls to get our opinion on which political candidate we loathe the least. In a world where people are in a hurry and attention spans are short, the old methods of data collection seem cumbersome and intrusive.

Marketers know this, which is why the technology boom of the last few decades has been a godsend for them (although which god sent it, we’re not sure). In a high-tech world, companies and pollsters will still get information from us and about us whether we want them to or not.

Let’s say you head to the local grocery store to buy a certain brand of candy that delights your sweet tooth. You purchase it at a discount using ...