Now We Worry about Earth Shattering Research
April 26, 2010
From the too little, too late department comes “Researchers “Addicted” to Bogus Internet Studies.” The point of the story is that researchers gather data and issue findings. The results get sucked into the Dyson Animal that is online information. In a nonce, the findings reveals insights. Folks these days love insights. Here’s a telling passage in my opinion:
The findings are pretty earth-shattering.
Another comment:
It’s too bad the research made such a big deal out of the addiction angle, because there is some interesting data — or at least, some interesting comments from students — about their use of social media and technologies such as texting.
The quest for data is one way to provide some anchor points to the fluid world of online.
My take is different. The authors of studies and the authors of write ups about studies might give some thought to:
- Stating the sample size
- Explaining how the sample was generated
- Providing some hint about the margin for error
- Linking to supporting data.
Until this happens, I take these studies and the reports about “earth shattering” insights as suggestive, not definitive. This applies to academics and the azure chip crowd as well. For an example of research that generates amazing numbers like 500 billion per year, read “The State of Online Word of Mouth Marketing.” Yep, 500 billion and no sample or positioning info in sight.
Stephen E Arnold, April 26, 2010
Unsponsored post.
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