A Curmudgeonly Public Service Announcement

[gurdymonkey]

Dear Messrs. Barratt, Cahill, Carlen, Huck, Lurker and Ploskonka,

Please do not call your little exercise a "blog game" in the hopes of duping me into participating in an experiment. It's quite obviously not a game, but some sort of study in which you are collecting information on the relative affluence of blog users on this (and possibly other) journal groups.

You will forgive me if I prefer not to  "share"  information about my socio-economic status on a public internet forum.

Thank you for your attention. 

EDIT: http://wbarratt.indstate.edu/socialclass/social_class_on_campus.htm

Comments

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

It's either that or a ticket on Guilt Trip Airlines. Either way I'm not playing.

[sasha-khan.livejournal.com]

Saw that and thought

"Uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh, no thanks"

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

I like social science experiments. In the microcosm of my blog friends I find out a little about how people grew up. In the larger scale of things, these are the studies that are used by government analysts to decide how social development occurs and where the money should be channeled. To me, it is my vote.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

The big problem I have with this is that it's being passed around as a "meme", with no explanation or context other than one having to give credit to the people who created it - unless one bothers, as I did, to Google their names and find out what the thing is about.

If I fill out a census questionnaire, that's my duty as a citizen. If I participate in a survey with my full knowledge and consent, that's another thing. This just feels icky.

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

I didn't think they hid it at all. They put their names on it and those who would be most interested could easily see where they got the indicators that they used. It doesn't reveal their hypothesis since it may just be that they are studying who opts in or out. (Muhahahaha... evil researchers.) You certainly are entitled to feel however icky you want to feel. It just seems so obvious to me that it doesn't feel hidden in any respect.

The research that is used to determine how government weighs certain communication forms (and how it disperses money) is effected by social science research that is preformed in other areas besides official census reports.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Ah, but how much of an expectation of meme-sheep behavior did they have in planting this on blog-sites?

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

Blog sites offer the information on blog site behavior. You cannot get that information anywhere other than a blog site. The researchers do not seem to be assuming that the behavior is sheep-like since they put their names on it. (Making it very easy to track what their interests are in social science circles by anyone who would bother to look it up.) I have been in on those meetings where we design social experiments. They know that some folks will look it up. I think it was remarkably honest of the researchers.

Some people will automatically do what their friends are doing. Some will look up the names of the researchers and go "OMGZ!!! THIS IS RESEARCH!!" and some will go "Oh hey, names. Must be resesarch. K. Whatever." In fact, that could be what they are researching.

Thanks but no . . .

[willbarratt.livejournal.com]

We didn't start the meme. If you track it back to the source this is an awareness experience for US undergrads on social class, nothing more. It got picked up and has taken on a life of its own.

Will Barratt