While I’m fascinated by the human mind and the way people operate, especially in regards to the internet, I don’t usually run social experiments or post those things to Facebook asking you to do something specific if you actually read something. Why? Because I think they’re silly. Maybe someone read it, but they don’t like posting random stuff to Facebook? Does that make them any less your friend?
Well, I don’t think so.
Even so, I unknowingly ran a social experiment on my blog a couple of weeks ago, on February 6th to be exact. On that Saturday, I posted the Pixar Book Tag, which Charley had nominated me for. Except when I stored it away in my scheduled posts I forgot to mark it as {WIP} to let myself know I still needed to finish it. Because of this folly, the post went up with no graphics and no books. It was just the template for the Pixar Book Tag. (P.s. I’m quite ashamed this happened…)
Yet, despite the fact that the post was just a listing of Pixar movies with little blurbs for the books you’re supposed to associate with them, the post managed to receive 14 likes… 14 likes on a post that had basically nothing in it. Right…
Of course, with those 14 likes, I naturally began pondering why people were liking a post with basically no content. Had they simply seen it on their Reader and ‘liked’ it because it was there or because it was a book tag? Or had they gone to the page, been utterly confused, but like it anyway? Or perhaps they just liked it because they thought they were being supportive? Honestly, I don’t know!
I’m still quite baffled, which is why I made this post about it. (Because I’m a complete and utter dork! :p) But that’s okay. Y’all still love me anyway, right?
Well, anyway, this is social experiment #2. Below is a cute little poll to say that you’ve read this post. I plan to compare the number of votes to the number of ‘likes’ this post gets. (Not that it’ll answer my actual question,) but it’ll at least give me a better idea of how many people actually read my posts. :p
Melanie Noell Bernard 
I’m new on wordpress so I’m very interested in this little social experiment you have going on haha. How do I keep updated with this post?
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Hi there! Thank you for posting, but I’m not sure I will do much follow-up with this post. I do find it interesting that 13 people voted in the poll. Though, 17 people ‘liked’ the post. So, that is rather interesting. Haha! Not sure how else to really test whether people are actually reading the post.
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I will admit that sometimes I like your posts but I don’t read them, just because you posted something and you’re my friend I’m gonna like your things and I feel no shame! (Kind of)
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Haha! Thank you for your honesty, Sara. ^.^ And thank you for your support. I understand. I should do that rather than just not reading posts, but I personally feel bad liking someone’s post without reading it. I guess I’m self-guilting myself. :p
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Mostly it’s tags for me, since there comes a point where I can’t stand to see that one tag anymore haha or your writing cause I’m super lost on those haha
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Haha! I apologize for my writing series. I have three story lines that I inter-loop. I keep a glossary on my ‘novel worlds’ page. :p But you don’t have to read them. Hee hee!
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I did notice that but I didn’t want to say anything! I thought you were just going to come back to it at some point 🙂 xx
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Haha! That’s awesome, Charley! ^.^ I debated filling it out after it posted, but I’ve been super busy IRL lately. 😦
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What a fun anecdote!
Sometimes I do get the feeling that people “like” something without even reading the whole post. If I’m busy and like the title of the post that I see on my Dashboard, I will like it.
So I’d wager 90% of those 14 people didn’t actually read your post.
Did you get any comments?
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Kind of disappointing that people don’t actually read posts, but then why like it? That’s what I don’t understand.
And no. There were no comments, which only enhances my hypothesis. :p
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Haha, that is funny––but also kinda sad. >_< Occasionally I "like" things as a way to bookmark them to read later, but 99% of the time I read an entire post before I like/comment. I suspect a lot of bloggers just "like" posts in the hopes of being noticed/followed, though.
BTW I finally got around to doing the book tag you tagged me in last week! 😀
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Haha! That’s really funny actually because I ‘like’ posts to remind myself that I have read them. :p (Though, I haven’t read people’s blog posts in a few weeks now with my crazy IRL. *is ashamed*)
Oo! *runs off to read book tag*
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That’s probably a better system, haha. I haven’t had much time to read people’s blog posts in the past week or so, either. And I’ve mostly just been doing memes on my own blog recently. 😛 I need to get some new posts up!
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Haha! I’ve been busy scheduling posts for the next few months for… reasons that’ll be explained on my blog on Saturday. >.> But that’s eating up a TON of my time right now. I have almost 50 blog posts scheduled through the end of June. *headdesk*
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That’s what I do. Especially with the TTT and T5Ws. Like it as soon as I’ve read it, so I know I’ve already done it.
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