Janet CollinsYou Are the Only Person Reading this Now
December 30th 2009 05:53
In the era of the internet and the information age, anyone would have to agree with me that we are generally fed far more information than we need to know, or even want to.
The statistical information provided on a lot of websites and other online sites these days would have to go high on my list as some of the most useless pieces of information for just about everyone, if not all, who click on to the site.
I’m talking about those widgets that tell me how many people have clicked on to the site, which to me is absolutely useless information to anyone but the owner or moderator of the site itself.
The other information that has caught my attention lately and confuses me even more, is the statistical information a lot of online news provides about the articles I am reading at any given time.
If you haven’t noticed this before, pay attention next time you click on to a news article and most of them have a statistic (often somewhere near the top left hand corner) that tells me how many people are reading the article at the same time I am.
Maybe I am a little in the dark but I fail to understand how I am supposed to interpret this information. Just say the statistic says "50 people are reading this article now" – am I supposed to interpret it as a good thing because I am reading a popular article and so I am keeping up with the Joneses, so to speak? Or would it be that I have just clicked on to the article at a time when a lot of people were reading it too?
The same can be said when I see “You’re the only person reading this now” I have wondered if this is meant to make me feel more intelligent than the rest of the population or that I am some sort of freak because I am the only person in the world who is interested in this topic. Maybe I have simply clicked on when everyone else is asleep. Or should it cause me a little concern that someone is watching every move I make?
It all highlights just how obsessed we have become with traffic - website traffic that is - in this age of internet marketing. Is it the headline that drives people to click on it or is it the topic of the article that makes it so fascinating?
What would be a lot more interesting information that we will never see on these articles would be something like this: "1000 people only read the first sentence of this article" because clicking on to an article and reading it are two entirely different things.
But I bet we will never see that happen.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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Comment by Janet Collins
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I guess my point was that it is not telling me how many people have read it. It is simply telling me how many people are reading it at the same time I am and that really seems like rather pointless information.
But I guess any statistics will do
Thanks for dropping by.
Comment by Optomistic Opportunism
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Optomystic Opportunism
I am tempted by those sites that offer starting a conversation with those who are reading the same thing at the same time. Just to say what i think on the subject matter, and be heard in real time.
Comment by Janet Collins
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I have often wondered why this information would be useful to anyone.
Thank you for dropping by.
Comment by Spring-Heeled Jack
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Comment by Janet Collins
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Thank you for dropping in.
Comment by Journeywoman
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I like that you made the point about the headlines, Janet - they really do draw people in. For example, the headline "Centaur found off Qld Coast" definitely made me click, and I found more than 100 others reading it at the same time... made me smile. Oh and your headline is what brought me here also.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Yes, I think my post was really very tongue in cheek. I do think it is funny when I get the message "You are the only one reading this now" often with a little message "tell your friends"!!!
Having said that, I also think that some of that information is just a bit too much sometimes.
Thanks for dropping by and Happy New Year.
Comment by RubySoho
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Comment by Janet Collins
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Hope you have a good celebration planned for tonight and may 2010 bring you everything you want.
Thanks for the visit.
Janet
Comment by Jason King
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Happy New Years Janet
Comment by Janet Collins
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Thank you and have a great New Year. And thanks for reading it all
Janet
Comment by Anonymous
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Comment by Journeywoman
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Perhaps some sort of "credibility rating" needs to be introduced.... a kind of media watch, I guess, but for the modern media that is the world wide web.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Even without trying to make up stories, some of the journos themselves get facts incredibly wrong sometimes. The other day when that ex-Brit was put to death in China, a leading Australian reporter first came out saying he had been shot by a firing squad. Not true, later reports had him put to death by lethal injection.
It would be virtually impossible to monitor truth but in our immediate deadline world, even basic facts can be really distorted sometimes.
Thank you both for your suggestion.