Facebook Is Definitely Evil: Plus or Minus Three Percent at a 95 Percent Confidence Level
March 2, 2020
The Verge Tech Survey 2020 allegedly and theoretically reveals the deepest thoughts, preferences, and perceptions of people in the US. The details of these people are sketchy, but that’s not the point of the survey. The findings suggest that Facebook is a problem. Amazon is a problem. Other big tech companies are problems. Trouble right here is digital city.
The survey findings come from a survey of 1123 people “nationally representative of the US.” There was no information about income, group with which the subject identifies, or methodology. But the result is a plus or minus three percent at a 95 percent confidence level. That sure seems okay despite DarkCyber’s questions about:
- Sample selection. Who pulled the sample, from where, were people volunteers, etc.
- “Nationally representative” means what? Was it the proportional representation method? How many people from Montana and the other “states”? What about Puerto Rico? Who worked for which company?
- Plus or minus three percent. That’s a swing at a 95 percent confidence level. In terms of optical character recognition that works out to three to six errors per page about 95 percent of the time. Is this close enough for a drone strike or an enforcement action. Oh, right, this is a survey about big tech. Big tech doesn’t think the DarkCyber way, right?
- What were the socio economic strata of the individuals in the sample?
What’s revealed or discovered?
First, people love most of the high profile “names” or “brands.” Amazon is numero uno, the Google is number two, and YouTube (which is the Google in case you have forgotten is number three. So far, the data look like a name recognition test. “Do you prefer this unknown lye soap or Dove?” Yep, people prefer Dove. But lye soap may be making a come back.
The stunning finding is that Facebook and Twitter impact society in a negative way. Contrast this to lovable Google and Amazon, 72 percent are favorable to the Google and 70 percent are favorable to Amazon.
Here’s the data about which companies people trust. Darned Amazing. People trust Microsoft and Amazon the most.
Which companies do the homeless and people in rural West Virginia trust?
Plus 72 percent of the sample believe Facebook has too much “power.” What does power mean? No clue for the context of this survey.
Gentle reader, please, examine the article containing these data. I want to go back in time and reflect on the people who struggled in my statistics classes. Painful memories but I picked up some cash tutoring. I got out of that business because some folks don’t grasp numerical recipes.
Stephen E Arnold, March 2, 20020
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One Response to “Facebook Is Definitely Evil: Plus or Minus Three Percent at a 95 Percent Confidence Level”
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I TOTALLY agree. Facebook/Instagram have way too much power and their antics are the worst.
One, how instagram keeps locking down their platform causing other companies to struggle and make business easier. API limits, how many actions you are allowed to take and what kind. If you do this you get blocked or banned. Then their customer service is completely absent. Worst ever!
I totally agree to break up all of these companies. They want to police the users but who polices them as many big deal violations they had. ridiculous.