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omg science social media buzzword google+

Two nights ago I ran out of 30 Rock episodes that were readily available to watch on the internet for free.  Last night, in an attempt to figure out what TV show to watch next and do some REAL LIFE science, I asked for show recommendations on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Formspring.

In terms of number of responses (comments or answers) it went like this:

Formspring: 10
Facebook: 9
Google+: 4

In terms of actual suggestions, like the shows themselves:

Formspring: 21
Facebook: 17
Google+: 6 

Twitter and Tumblr both got nada. (WTF, 8 TUMBLR FOLLOWERS, WHERE YOU AT.)  This makes sense to me, though, since a tweet goes away pretty quickly and not that many people follow me, and those who do are probably also my Facebook friends.  Tumblr posts go away somewhat less quickly (probably) but hardly anyone pays attention to this shit.

Only one person (Chris Marra) answered on two sites (Facebook and Google+, in that order).

All of Google+’s responses came within 20 minutes of the post; Formspring’s and Facebook’s were much more spread out.

The possibly interesting thing is the evidence of the fundamental difference between interactions on Formspring and interactions on Facebook/Google+.  I asked my followers on Formspring, which is supposedly 29 people, and 10 of them responded.  This is crazy nuts in comparison to 9 comments from 407 Facebook friends.  The reasoning behind this is pretty obvious, I think — (besides the fact that 70% of responses came from Formspring employees,) when you ask a question, it shows up in someone’s “inbox” rather than a feed.  The receiver doesn’t know if this person is mass spamming their followers or really wants to know what this specific individual thinks.  A Formspring question is personally looking for a response, and a Facebook post is just floating out there in the interwebz, waiting for someone to notice it.  So: when you want to know what TV show to watch, or get suggestions for something, or (holy shit) ask a question, use Formspring.  If you want to express yourself and rave about how AWESOME THIS SANDWICH IS, use Facebook.

In terms of TV show suggestions, Community won with five (though it was suggested twice by Chris… but nothing had four suggestions).  Here’s the list:

30 Rock 1
Andy Richter Controls the Universe 1
Archer 1 
Arrested Development 3 
Battlestar Galactica 1 
Better Off Ted 1 
Big Bang Theory 3 
Breaking Bad 1 
Castle 1 
Community 5
Doctor Who 2 
Family Guy 1 
How I Met Your Mother 2
youtube.com/user/khanacademy 1 
Louie 1 
Modern Family 2 
Parks and Recreation 3 
Pretty Little Liars 1 
Scrubs 1 
Six Feet Under 1 
SOAP 1 
Sons of Anarchy 1 
The Office 2 
The Simpsons 1 
Undeclared 1 
Weeds 1 
White Collar 3 
Wipeout 1  

No, I don’t know what I’m watching tonight.