science

Post-demographics

Post-demographics is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Post-demographics rather than just read about it. In short: Post-demographics is a way to study the personal data in social networking platforms, and, in particular, how profiling is, or may be, performed, with which findings as well as consequences. The prefix 'post' shows that it is different from the demographic data that tries to organize groups, markets and voters in society.

Key takeaways

Post-demographics belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Post-demographics to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Post-demographics from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Post-demographics is a way to study the personal data in social networking platforms, and, in particular, how profiling is, or may be, performed, with which findings as well as consequences. The prefix 'post' shows that it is different from the demographic data that tries to organize groups, markets and voters in society. Where of interests are not the traditional demographics of race, ethnicity, age, income, educational level or derivations thereof such as class, but rather tastes and other information supplied to make and maintain an online profile. From a post-demographics perspective, the profile lies at the core of research into social networking sites, as it provides information that moves beyond the demographic, organized according to ‘interested’ and ‘favorites’, with more specific sub-categories as brands, music, movies, animals, etc.

Method The object of study are social networking sites, which are defined as sites where users can create a profile and connect that profile to other profiles for the purposes of making an explicit personal network. Instead of user-participation, observation, surveying as well as other approaches imported from the social sciences, the post-demographic methods depart from a non-user perspective. A non-user perspective is someone who does not use the social networking site to manage friendships or to flirt, but still visit the site and read the profiles. They are particularly interested in the data sets that they can retrieve from profiles. The post-demographic method strives to think through what the profilers would do, and builds upon it. Thus, first it is important to identify the constraints per social networking platform in harvesting data. Once data may be harvested, the further step is to identify the set of relationships that could be studied, e.g., do friends have the same interests? The method tries to understand for which purposes are interests a more significant mode of organizing and recommending action than demographics.

References

External links Digital Methods Initiative on Post-demographics

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Post-demographics

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Post-demographics claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Post-demographics before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Post-demographics ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Post-demographics

In research: Post-demographics appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Post-demographics in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Post-demographics is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Demography, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Post-demographics outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Post-demographics in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Post-demographics means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Post-demographics out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Post-demographics in simple terms?

Why does Post-demographics matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Post-demographics?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Post-demographics.