AfterDawn: Tech news

Most Tweets are "pointless babble," says study

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Aug 2009 1:33 User comments (31)

Most Tweets are "pointless babble," says study

A new study, conducted by Pear Analytics, has revealed that most of the Tweets written on Twitter are "pointless babble."
The study placed Tweets into six categories, pointless babble, conversational, pass-along value, spam, news and self-promotion and found that most Tweets fell into the first category.

"Mostly many people still perceive Twitter as just mindless babble of people telling you what they are doing minute-by-minute; as if you care they are eating a sandwich at the moment," said Ryan Kelly, a study researcher, via Channel Wire.

The study used 2000 English-language Tweets from Americans, taking in Tweets for 6 hours a day, for two weeks period.

The "pointless babble" category was over 44 percent, followed by "conversational" at 37.6 percent, "pass-along value" in third at 8.7 percent, "self-promotion" at 5.85 percent and finally "news" at 3.6 percent.

"With the new face of Twitter, it will be interesting to see if they take a heavier role in news, or continue to be a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else,"
added Pear Analytics researchers. "We will be conducting this same study every quarter to identify other trends in usage."

Previous Next  

31 user comments

114.8.2009 03:04

It took these people a study what only takes most people to use their common sense to figure out.

214.8.2009 03:18

Originally posted by mike.m:
It took these people a study what only takes most people to use their common sense to figure out.

ROFL True. I think people that tweet, are mostly attention whores.

314.8.2009 03:55

Quote:
Originally posted by mike.m:
It took these people a study what only takes most people to use their common sense to figure out.

ROFL True. I think people that tweet, are mostly attention whores.

While this is true, I know many people who use it to keep in touch with each other. It's pretty handy for that.

414.8.2009 04:25

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by mike.m:
It took these people a study what only takes most people to use their common sense to figure out.

ROFL True. I think people that tweet, are mostly attention whores.

While this is true, I know many people who use it to keep in touch with each other. It's pretty handy for that.
Errr i know what else is handy for that.. email, or if you want to go more casual than that, Facebook?!

You then have the choice of posting on your wall, posting on their wall, a private message, or instant messaging if they are online.. And you can see all their pics and video's, and everyone's on it. Seriously, why would you use twitter?!

514.8.2009 05:42

i twitter for sports, news, music and jokes... you get all that in one page, instantly! ofcourse you can do that by going to msn or something like that, but you cannot be selective. you can twitter youre favorite band, rapper, sport team, player, local news etc... kinda neat i think.

614.8.2009 07:11

The world needs more zippy after all!!

714.8.2009 08:08

but you gotta hate seeing all that lovey crap on there. "i think he wants me to be his wifey." "im on a journey" bla bla bla

814.8.2009 11:03

Twitter is heaven for advertisers for sure. Or any company that needs to know what people's days consist of step by step.

914.8.2009 11:23

Myspace, Facebook, Twitter....of course its pointless babble, thats the point.

So I guess they spent 7 million dollars with this study?

EDIT* I dont't know why I said 7 million...it was just a number that popped up in my head :P I meant millions, lol

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 14 Aug 2009 @ 11:26

1014.8.2009 11:37

Originally posted by mike.m:
It took these people a study what only takes most people to use their common sense to figure out.

In fairness to Pear Analytics they apparently only decided to do this study after their funding to find out whether water is wet ran out.

1114.8.2009 11:51
emugamer
Inactive

My wife and I swore never to go on twitter or facebook. Anything that involves Ashton Butcher as the poster boy is probably a waste of time.

My wife finally broke down when she realized that networking via that medium might help her out with her business. It's been amazing for her. Her business is exploding and she is meeting so many contacts all over the country. She has people following her and offering her professional marketing and photography services in exchange for other services to promote their business.

Tweeting is useless for someone like me and I hate the idea of facebook, but I've seen the potential and power of these services first hand.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 14 Aug 2009 @ 11:53

1214.8.2009 13:54

Originally posted by emugamer:
My wife and I swore never to go on twitter or facebook. Anything that involves Ashton Butcher as the poster boy is probably a waste of time.

My wife finally broke down when she realized that networking via that medium might help her out with her business. It's been amazing for her. Her business is exploding and she is meeting so many contacts all over the country. She has people following her and offering her professional marketing and photography services in exchange for other services to promote their business.

Tweeting is useless for someone like me and I hate the idea of facebook, but I've seen the potential and power of these services first hand.
Has your wife tried LinkedIn? I think that one is more for professionals, she might get even better results, who knows?

1314.8.2009 13:57

Most Tweets are "pointless babble," says pointless study

1414.8.2009 15:20
emugamer
Inactive

Quote:
Originally posted by emugamer:
My wife and I swore never to go on twitter or facebook. Anything that involves Ashton Butcher as the poster boy is probably a waste of time.

My wife finally broke down when she realized that networking via that medium might help her out with her business. It's been amazing for her. Her business is exploding and she is meeting so many contacts all over the country. She has people following her and offering her professional marketing and photography services in exchange for other services to promote their business.

Tweeting is useless for someone like me and I hate the idea of facebook, but I've seen the potential and power of these services first hand.
Has your wife tried LinkedIn? I think that one is more for professionals, she might get even better results, who knows?
Not sure if LinkedIn would be for her. She's not trying to get a job and she's not looking to hire people. She's not a professional in a specific field per say...she's an entrepreneur. I'm on LinkedIn, and primarily use it to connect with people who work in my field and keep my professional profile updated. Even so, her business is already growing faster than she expected. She's not really ready for any better results. It would be biting off more than she can chew.

Her business relies on constant social interaction and networking, and Twitter provides just what she's been needing.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 14 Aug 2009 @ 3:21

1514.8.2009 20:40

taking a crap

1614.8.2009 21:39

Originally posted by mike.m:
It took these people a study what only takes most people to use their common sense to figure out.
So true. I signed up for Twitter to see what all the news what about. I really found it to be useless. Especially since other networking sites allow you to share a lot more than a simple *tweet*.

1715.8.2009 14:09

I guess there is a reason that they call people that use Twitter Twits!

1815.8.2009 15:07

You won't (ever) catch me on sites such as My(waste-of)space/Lamespace, Face(palm)book, Twit-ter(d) or any of those other lame sites.

Only the youth of today's society could come up with/appreciate such utter pointless pap that is social networking. The only thing i will tolerate is Instant Messaging and IRC because at least you can speak to real people ie your own friends that way, anything else is utter pointless time-wasting mind-numbing brain-cell-destroying crap.

And anyone posting in this News item saying they actually like these kind of social networking sites deserve to be banned :) :)

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 15 Aug 2009 @ 3:09

1915.8.2009 15:09

Originally posted by creaky:
You won't (ever) catch me on sites such as My(waste-of)space/Lamespace, Face(palm)book, Twit-ter(d) or any of those other lame sites.

Only the youth of today's society could come up with/appreciate such utter pointless pap that is social networking. The only thing i will tolerate is Instant Messaging and IRC because at least you can speak to real people ie your own friends that way, anything else is utter pointless time-wasting mind-numbing brain-cell-destroying crap.
That just shows you how old you are, you need to relax and stalk...er....enjoy today's youth...er..... culture...er.....youth culture....... hehehehehe :P

2015.8.2009 15:13

Hehe i know i must be an old fart to comment the way i did, but stuff like this just wouldn't have happened "in my day", you'd have got a good kicking back then for coming up with such useless ideas. Only in the 21st Century eh :p

2115.8.2009 15:18

Originally posted by creaky:
Hehe i know i must be an old fart to comment the way i did, but stuff like this just wouldn't have happened "in my day", you'd have got a good kicking back then for coming up with such useless ideas. Only in the 21st Century eh :p
meh the less modern stuff you know the better off you seem to be. 0-o

I got a myspace page because I was in between free web site crap, I got a face book page so I can ignore it and got on twitter just to see what the fuss is about a reverse IM thingy is about.

Frankly if someone stream like a news ticker/feed to make it really easy to post blurbs and links and then add the ability to easily add sites,ect it would be alot more useful.....

2215.8.2009 22:48

What i find really pontless is the fact that they needed to do a study to figure out that tweeter is a pointless addictive hobby like Facebook is.

2316.8.2009 14:46

Originally posted by creaky:
You won't (ever) catch me on sites such as My(waste-of)space/Lamespace, Face(palm)book, Twit-ter(d) or any of those other lame sites.

Only the youth of today's society could come up with/appreciate such utter pointless pap that is social networking. The only thing i will tolerate is Instant Messaging and IRC because at least you can speak to real people ie your own friends that way, anything else is utter pointless time-wasting mind-numbing brain-cell-destroying crap.

And anyone posting in this News item saying they actually like these kind of social networking sites deserve to be banned :) :)
I'd have to agree for the most part, though I do have a facebook which is only used to track down old friends none of that "LOL BRB I'MA DOIN THE DISHES".

2416.8.2009 16:13

Originally posted by creaky:
You won't (ever) catch me on sites such as My(waste-of)space/Lamespace, Face(palm)book, Twit-ter(d) or any of those other lame sites.

Only the youth of today's society could come up with/appreciate such utter pointless pap that is social networking. The only thing i will tolerate is Instant Messaging and IRC because at least you can speak to real people ie your own friends that way, anything else is utter pointless time-wasting mind-numbing brain-cell-destroying crap.

And anyone posting in this News item saying they actually like these kind of social networking sites deserve to be banned :) :)
Finally, I've found someone who thinks alike! They're all piles of junk that have no common purpose... I can't see any potential in any of these sites.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 16 Aug 2009 @ 4:13

2516.8.2009 16:40

Originally posted by creaky:
Hehe i know i must be an old fart to comment the way i did, but stuff like this just wouldn't have happened "in my day", you'd have got a good kicking back then for coming up with such useless ideas. Only in the 21st Century eh :p
hah.like me you appear to have become your father.LMAO

2620.8.2009 11:12

Big Brother crap syndrome! (reality TV)

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 20 Aug 2009 @ 11:13

2720.8.2009 11:20

Quote:
Originally posted by mike.m:
It took these people a study what only takes most people to use their common sense to figure out.

In fairness to Pear Analytics they apparently only decided to do this study after their funding to find out whether water is wet ran out.
Piont of order here.

Water is not wet it is the catalyst which causes something else to become wet.

You never put your hand in water and say "this water is wet" do you? You say "my hand is wet"!

Just being pedantic.

2820.8.2009 16:53

i have a myspace page and i have successfully checked the updates once every 2-3 months. so it's....

back in my college days, i joined most of the current social networking sites of the time, but never really paid much attention to them. some are still around, but are dead. i reluctantly joined myspace a few years ago. i was terribly unimpressed but at least more of my associates that i wanted to be bothered with were on it. now everyone is on facebook. i'm NOT joining that. i thought about looking into twitter maybe -- only to see what the fuss is. but i have no strong urge to use it.

how old do you have to be to be too old for myspace/facebook/twitter??

2920.8.2009 17:09
varnull
Inactive

Uk.. about 25 (iq age 3) or if a Kiwi.. well.. granny probably likes it better than the kids..

"we took 4 cardboard tubes of the kind you normally find in rolls of ordinary household toilet tissue. We wanted to find out if they would support the weight of a human man. We placed them equidistant on the floor thus .. .. crunch... NO.."

Another pointless fail.. research funding fails again.. why not research if the sun is up or down or martians like MTV?

3021.8.2009 03:31

pointless babble is right

i wish twitter and "tweeting" would die and go away forever...

3121.8.2009 15:36

Quote:
As if one were needed, a study revealed that most tweets on Twitter are considered "pointless babble."
Couldn't have said it any better.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

News archive