I keep seeing this study performed by Pear Analytics bandied about the blogosphere as if it were some sort of gospel handed down by the Lords of the Internet that conclusively proves that 40% of all Twitter missives are pointless babble.
I’m surprised no one picked up on this at any point in their analysis, especially considering how much time most of the pundits seem to spend on Twitter interacting: one man’s pointless babble is another man’s pearls of wisdom.
Take a look at this tweet:
Now take a look at it in context of the conversation:
Depending on who you are, any single one of those tweets might be considered “pointless babble,” taken out of context – and for some, it could be considered pointless in the context of the conversation. The subject matter might be remedial to some, and completely over the heads of others.
How much of our day-to-day conversation is trivial handshaking and situation specific? Does that mean it’s pointless?
It generally isn’t pointless to the participants of the conversation. Judging something “pointless babble” isn’t an objective call, and makes this study completely useless.
Can we stop referencing it now?
