Study Finds Two-Thirds of Tweets Useless, Per Twitter Users

Although many find Twitter to be an invaluable tool for sharing links, checking into Foursquare, venting, promoting a band or communicating with friends, a new study indicates that a sample of Twitter users find the bulk of Twitter content to be useless- mainly for the whole Foursquare/venting/promoting thing.

However, if you use Twitter, it seems that the two-thirds figure might actually be a bit low- content is so voluminous that sorting the wheat from the chaff can seem a daunting task if you’ve not got really strict lists going on. Doctoral student at MIT Michael Bernstein worked on the study, and commented in a way that sounds like “researcher discovers Twitter, sums up in one sentence”:

“A well-received tweet is not all that common… A significant amount of content is considered not worth reading, for a variety of reasons.”

The figure comes from sorting in the survey that classed only 36% of tweets as having value, compared to 25% giving a negative impression and the remaining 39%, which just inspired apathy. The results of the “Who Gives a Tweet?” survey can be viewed here– do you still find value in Twitter?

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Tags: Social Media, Social Media Studies, Twitter

About the Author

Kim LaCapria Kim LaCapria is a writer and editor based in New York. A longtime information junkie, she began blogging full-time at the Inquisitr in 2009. Prior to that, she worked as a marketing assistant in the cosmetics and skincare industry. In addition to her writing for fortytwotimes, she also writes for Medacity and The Inquisitr. Kim is also a contributor for SocialNewsDaily, Indyposted, and TotallyMoney. In the past, she contributed to Lipstick and Luxury and managed social media accounts and blogs for several small and mid-sized businesses.