The scene opens on a classroom. The students’ eyes are glazed over from the glow of the computer screens, half of them open to D2L, the other to some Instagrammer’s latest post. The professor asks the question, “What is metadata?” and one person, with a fox-like grin on their face, raises their hand and calls out, “It’s data about data.” Everyone breaks out in applause, confetti rains from the ceiling and cupcakes are served. This has happened to me more times than I can count, and yes, a quick hand raise asking for clarification could have solved all my problems but then I wouldn’t have had a blog post idea. So come with me as we take a journey on self-education and find out what all the fuss is about metadata and why you should actually care about it.