Researchers Joke (?) of Facebook Epidemic in Decline Goes Viral
In what seems to be an inherently flawed project, or a joke, Princeton University researchers claim that Facebook use will soon decline. They liken facebook use to an epidemic of an infectious disease that they predict people will soon become “immune” to.
Their premise is that facebook is “an idea”
and they base the research conclusions on the “methodology” of counting how
many times people type the word facebook into google (and their revelation that
this has declined).
But any social media savvy ten-year old
could have told them this is a flawed methodology. Facebook is not an idea but
a means of communication, and most people who use it do not type facebook into
google, as it is already in their computer as a favourite site, or if users do
type in facebook, it is into the address bar.
This story is already hitting the
headlines, and may well go “viral” on social media. Sounds like their
prediction of an “epidemic” we will become immune to could be based on nothing
more than a play on the word “viral”, in other words, a joke. Hmmm.
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