Data narratives: Apologies

In this series, the Data and Interactive Journalism class will take you beyond the numbers and discover the human narratives they reveal. Each piece in the series will dive into a different aspect of the human condition, from the rhythms of our daily routines to the broader societal trends that shape our collective existence. By transforming raw data into visual stories; we aim to provide new perspectives and insights into the familiar and the overlooked aspects of life.

Our topic this week is apologies.

Apologies are moments where we acknowledge mistakes and seek to make amends. Our visualizations aim to quantify and illustrate how we say sorry, the impact of these apologies, and the steps toward mending bridges. We spent a week tracking our apologies in order to create a personalized database to work from.

Chronic over-apologizer

by Hannah Cron

I am a chronic over-apologizer. I am good about apologizing when I make mistakes, but I also tend to apologize for things like taking up space and for being annoying — only because I am self-conscious. (If you look at my data graphic closely, you might be able to see where that came from.) The week represented in my graphic was rather unusual — I spent the first few days alone due to snow, and only communicated with others over text or phone calls. I also attended two crowded social functions during that week: a concert and an NHL game. These are the types of situations in which I am most likely to overapologize. Since I was logging my apologies, I tried to be extra cognizant of my sorry tendencies. I still slipped into my old habits many times. I logged my apologies based on who apologized, the situation, whether it was verbal or over text, and whether the apology was necessary. Several of these data points are visualized in my graphic.

Alert genuine apology ahead

by Jeikof Alfaro Saenz

I chose road signs because they are meant to alert or prevent drivers from doing something, and excuses are like that, too. Apologies should motivate us to reflect on what we are doing right and wrong so that we can reach our destination safely. Some say you hurt the people you know best the most; That’s why I chose red to indicate apologies from family and orange for friends, because it’s something everybody needs to pay special attention to. If you hurt a family member or friend with your actions or words, you should stop and reconsider things. I learned that I need to work harder to offer genuine apologies to everyone, but especially to the people I love.

Best of intentions

by Gracey Parnell

I chose hearts to represent the times I apologized. I feel like it best represents my intentions. The circles represent the times someone else apologized to me. I felt like the circle was a good choice as it can represent different social situations. Next, I chose the color pink to represent a friend because I relate that color to friendliness. I chose orange for strangers because, personally, I don’t feel as connected with that color. Similarly, I chose blue for coworkers as it is another friendly color, but here, it represents a different level of familiarity. I relate the color green to text messages, so in this visual, I used a green line to represent the times the apology was over text. I used a dark red line to represent in-person apologies as it is the complementary color of green. The teal dot represents on campus, where I was when the apology happened. Similarly, the brown dot represents off-campus. I used stars to show the sincerity level, 1-5, of the apology.