This is day 3 of my Cold Turkey experiment. For one week I will only get my news from Twitter. No NPR, no RSS feeds, no newspapers, no website (unless directed to via Twitter), no podcasts and no e-mail subscriptions.
Better today. There’s some kind of news about Junior Seau. Am I missing that? I’m not so sure.
Here’s a brief history of why I set out on this experience. To explain it, I’ll use the good old Scientific Method.
Observe a Phenomenon: Recently at the Inbound Marketing Summit there was a focus on the “Real-time” nature of PR and news in general. There was a general vibe that “old media” was dead, dying or at least “new media” was stealing old media’s girlfriend.
Formulate a Question: While I totally understand where that sentiment comes from, I felt that was over-simplifiying things a bit. I supposed that even the super-early adopters still absorb news and events through old media channels such as TV, radio and outdoor advertising – I just don’t think people realize that, despite their level of uber-social mogulness, they still get a considerable amount of info from traditional media. Ultimately the question was, “Can a person gather sufficient news using Twitter as a sole resource?”
Create Hypothesis: When push comes to shove, even a well-connected person will feel at a loss once the old media is taken away.
Test the Hypothesis: I decided to push the point by focusing solely on twitter. An easy out would have been to allow for any new media outlets (e.g. mobile apps and RSS feeds), but I decided to take the narrow approach of just limiting myself to twitter. If after a week I feel disconnected from what’s going on in the world I must accepted the hypothesis. However, if I develop new means of gathering news, solely via twitter, I will have to reject the hypothesis and create a new hypothesis.
Formulate the Conclusion: Stay tuned
2 comments
1 ping
Christine Sierra
October 20, 2010 at 4:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
When did you go all “science” on me? But nice approach…
Reff
October 20, 2010 at 5:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks fo the comment Christine.
Heh, I don’t think using the scientific method from grade school really qualifies as scientific proof – especially when the sample size is one. But I agree that us Marketers can better advance our theories when we apply a scientific approach to testing our assumptions.
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Cold Turkey: In Conclusion | Reff
October 24, 2010 at 4:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
[...] was a total drag, but there were some bright spots. If you missed why I did this, refer to day 3. Let’s but this baby to [...]