Technology like the internet.
Interested to see how my peers interact with it on a daily basis, I conducted a brief survey of approximately 30 people from all around our little campus (with only 2 others refusing to participate), asking each one something along the lines of:
"Hello, I'm conducting a poll to find out which top 3 websites people use; would you like to participate?"
I recorded their answers, having a total of 23 different websites, and calculated some percentages.
I made this. Pretty cool, huh? |
- 56% listed Facebook,
- 50% listed Google,
- 36% listed YouTube,
- 30% listed Twitter,
- 20% listed nvcc.edu,
It showed that the top websites were divided nicely into two functions.
Websites like Facebook, and Twitter are primarily used for their social aspects of sharing about oneself, or sharing in others' lives.
Google (not counting Google's secondary features, such as this very blogging platform), and nvcc.edu, on the other hand, are used to seek out information, and to learn.
(Yes, I understand that the nvcc.edu result is only specific to a select demographic.)
And as for YouTube, it is split into both camps, with many people passively using it to watch viral videos, tutorials, and the like, and a whole other social side too, with just as much, if not more sharing and community as any social media website.
What does it reveal about us as a culture, or even as a species, that we (or at least the NOVA students) value these websites over the wide variety of other kinds of websites that the internet has to offer? I can only conjecture, but given these results, it suggests that two of the most important needs of a human, that have been driving forces throughout history, are acceptance by society, and understanding of the world.
Do you agree? Disagree? I would like to hear.
Tell me your personal top 3 most frequented websites (any), and how you would interpret the results of my poll.
I was walking behind you on Monday and I had overheard you talking about what you thought the top 3 websites were and I was pretty interested and wondered where you were going with the idea. I'm glad you made a post about it so I could figure it all out. From the poll, the results aren't very surprising to me. I would have to agree with you completely that everyone wants to be accepted by society and understand how and why they're on this planet.
ReplyDeleteI was also browsing a few of my favorite websites and I came across this, thought it was pretty funny considering I just read your post.
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/authorization.png
Glad my post was helpful!
Deletexkcd's one of my favorites too (although admittedly some of the more technical stuff is beyond me).