The emergence of big data provides both opportunities and challenges tosocial scientists, and promotes a paradigmatic shift in sociological thinking.This paper aims to elaborate how the arrival of big data will change the waysociologists approach their research interests, as well as discuss how socialscientists — sociologists in particular, can prepare for the implementationof big data. We argue that social scientists need to learn techniques tradi-tionally used in the computer sciences in order to inform their future researchpractices. The current data training in the social sciences is insufficient andlimits our ability to recognize and leverage the rich field of big data, , thusprohibiting social scientists from playing a more active role in data-basedresearch and the era of big data. At the same time, social scientists need toreview methodology frameworks that builds upon sampling techniques andhypothesis testing, in order to develop a hybrid technique that is applicableto their field. For example, an atheoretical, inductive searching followed bya hypothesis-testing deductive procedure．