Facebook gives best possible response to ridiculous Princeton study
1. Facebook gives best possible response to ridiculous
Princeton study
Facebook gives best possible response to ridiculous Princeton study - Yahoo News
Earlier this week we highlighted a study from Princeton that used? Google? search trends to predict
that? Facebook? would lose 80% of its users by 2017. The study seemed so flat-out ridiculous to us
that we gave it our coveted "WTF of the Week" award" and apparently we weren"t alone in
questioning its methodology.? Facebook data scientist Mike Develin has decided? to use similar
methods to give Princeton a taste of its own medicine and "prove" that Princeton"s enrollment will
crash all the way to zero in less than a decade.
Among other things, Develin looked at a steep decline in Princeton-related "likes" on Facebook as
well as a drop in articles authored by Princeton professors retrieved by Google Scholar. If these
trends persist, Develin "projects" that Princeton"s enrollment will be cut in half by 2018 and that no
students will enroll in Princeton by 2021.
Develin says that the point of this little exercise was to show that "that not all research is created
equal " and some methods of analysis lead to pretty crazy conclusions." And he makes a good point:
As much as a lot of people really, really have Facebook, we can"t see it? going the way of MySpace?
anytime soon.
More from BGR: Apple fan explains what it"s like to use Android for six months
This article was originally published on BGR.com
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