For visibility of an opinion in facebook comments you have to multiply a few numbers:
what part of population has this opinion (this is what you want to know);
how much time those people spend on Facebook compared with other people (this can be a huge difference; some people spend there 10 hours every day, some maybe 15 minutes in a week);
how likely are they to click on a given article;
how likely are they to read the comments below the article;
how likely are they to write their own comment.
I would guess that people with no life not only spend more time on Facebook, but are also more likely to visit controversial articles (as opposed to people who merely check what their friends are doing), are more likely to read comments, and are more likely to contribute to a stupid discussion. Multiply these numbers, and you will see why most of internet looks like inside an insane asylum.
Yes, but… IME in those situations (at least when they don’t involve sexuality) usually at least some (about 5-10%) of the comments do espouse the meta-contrarian position. The booing of the virginity charity auction girl was unusual for its unanimity even in its own reference class (unless you restrict the reference class to sexuality-related issues only).
> how likely are they to read the comments below the article;
Plenty of the people I’m talking about don’t exactly sound like they had read the earlier comments before writing their own.
Possible bias: Maybe people who have their priorities right spend less time on Facebook?
Quite right. They are all too busy turning tricks for mosquito nets.
Maybe, but I wouldn’t expect that bias to be that strong.
For visibility of an opinion in facebook comments you have to multiply a few numbers:
what part of population has this opinion (this is what you want to know);
how much time those people spend on Facebook compared with other people (this can be a huge difference; some people spend there 10 hours every day, some maybe 15 minutes in a week);
how likely are they to click on a given article;
how likely are they to read the comments below the article;
how likely are they to write their own comment.
I would guess that people with no life not only spend more time on Facebook, but are also more likely to visit controversial articles (as opposed to people who merely check what their friends are doing), are more likely to read comments, and are more likely to contribute to a stupid discussion. Multiply these numbers, and you will see why most of internet looks like inside an insane asylum.
Yes, but… IME in those situations (at least when they don’t involve sexuality) usually at least some (about 5-10%) of the comments do espouse the meta-contrarian position. The booing of the virginity charity auction girl was unusual for its unanimity even in its own reference class (unless you restrict the reference class to sexuality-related issues only).
> how likely are they to read the comments below the article; Plenty of the people I’m talking about don’t exactly sound like they had read the earlier comments before writing their own.