Social Hot, yet Social Bad?
December 1, 2011
Will asking a human either directly or via monitoring be the solution to lousy precision and recall? We don’t think so, but we do pay attention to interesting ideas about the increasingly unhelpful search results available from ad-supported Web sites.
Network World questions certain poll results in “Half of adults believe social media sites hurt young people?” Writer Paul McNamara takes issue with Poll Position’s conclusion that 53% of adults say social media is harmful to young people. Even 46.5% of those in the 18-29 age range agreed, according to the organization’s recent survey. The article asserts:
The survey of 1,200 registered voters by Poll Position, conducted Nov. 13 via telephone using Interactive Voice Response technology, asked the loaded question: ‘Do you think that social media are helpful or harmful to the social development of today’s youth?’ . . . You might as well ask: ‘Have you heard and read more scary stories or more positive stories about social media?’
I see his point there. McNamara also questions the validity of Poll Position’s robo-call polling technology and cites this article at Politico. He further points out that the organization emphasizes provocative questions in its polls as a matter of course.
So, how much weight can we give these results? I agree with McNamara: take them with a grain of salt. And precision and recall? Not relevant to individuals who do not check facts and sources as part of the research routine.
Cynthia Murrell, December 1, 2011
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[…] Social Hot, yet Social Bad? Beyond Search: Network World questions certain poll results in “Half of adults believe social media sites hurt young people?” Writer Paul McNamara takes issue with Poll Position’s conclusion that 53% of adults say social media is harmful to young people. Even 46.5% of those in the 18-29 age range agreed, according to the organization’s recent survey. […]
[…] Social Hot, yet Social Bad? Beyond Search: Network World questions certain poll results in “Half of adults believe social media sites hurt young people?” Writer Paul McNamara takes issue with Poll Position’s conclusion that 53% of adults say social media is harmful to young people. Even 46.5% of those in the 18-29 age range agreed, according to the organization’s recent survey. […]