The Netflix docudrama The Social Dilemma has created a global stir over the detrimental effects of social media on society. It sounds the alarm on the alleged exploitation and manipulation of users for financial benefit through surveillance capitalism and data mining.

Kate Strachnyi, founder of DATAcated Academy and Story by Data, recently joined Ben Taylor, Chief AI Evangelist at DataRobot, on the DataRobot More Intelligent Tomorrow podcast to discuss the potential perils of social media, the upsides of obsession, and the obstacles she overcame to become a Top Voice on Linkedin. 

Kate addresses The Social Dilemma and characterizes the potency of various social media apps:

“It is very addictive. It gets you almost immediately—within a few days of you watching videos on it, it will show you everything you want. Whatever is in your mind that you didn’t even know you liked, and you think, ‘Oh yeah, I do like that.’ It’s creepy. I think social media platforms are going to be the best form of diagnosing your psychology…[and] I do worry about everyone in the general population.”

“That movie is really good for people who don’t know how that data is used.”

Climbing the LinkedIn Ladder

Although Kate, the author of Data Literacy for Kids, expounds on the dangers of social media, she loves LinkedIn and was named as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Data Science and Analytics in 2018 and 2019. 

Kate has been such a successful influencer on LinkedIn that she can now host huge conferences on her favorite platform:

“It is the first ever DATAcated Conference hosted fully on LinkedIn Live. We’ve got four tracks—one hour each—so it’s a four-hour conference. It’s free to attend. We’ve got over 3,500 people signed up so far, and I’m pretty sure we’re gonna break the 5,000 registration mark in the next few weeks. The hope is to get 10,000 people signed up…The conference is all about really quick, 10-minute, lightning-speed talks from amazing speakers.“ 

Obsessed with Data and Running, Finding a Homeschooling Groove, and Inspiring Others

When she’s not hosting conferences, writing books, or posting on LinkedIn, Kate finds time to homeschool her kids, cook dinner, and go for long-distance runs. She agrees with Grant Cardone that obsession “should be viewed as a positive.”

“I feel like I’m pretty obsessed with data plus LinkedIn, right? Those two combined—it’s an obsession, because I post all the time and I’m there all the time and I’m engaging all the time—but I see it as a good thing. I feel like I’m an obsessive person in general. Like [with] running, I’m not gonna run two miles. [If] I ran 50 miles, my next thing is: I want to run 100 miles. Whatever I do, I try to do it to my full potential and I think that’s a good thing.” 

Kate, who never works past 5:30 p.m., finds joy in phone-free trips to the playground with her kids and wants her legacy to be helping others reach their full potential: 

“If it’s something that I feel like this individual wants to do or have the potential to do, I want to inspire people to do whatever it is they want to do. It doesn’t have to be anything specific in data, it could even be running, for example. So, I think for me, a good legacy would be helping as many people as I can do the things that they want to do.”

To hear more about the ups and downs of social media and how obsession can be a positive trait, check out Datarobot.com/podcast or http://datarobot.buzzsprout.com/. You can also listen everywhere you already enjoy podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google.