Age Poll Results
Mar. 31st, 2019 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI was curious to see how the ages of my followers varied over various social media. As expected, dreamwidth skews slightly older. But it was also interesting to see how the responses varied in other ways.
Ages:
Some very unreliable average ages:
total average: 39
dreamwidth average: 40
tumblr average: 34
twitter average: 35
After the first time I posted the poll, it settled at around 55 answers, seventy percent of which were from dreamwidth. Which I find really interesting! After the second posting I have 69, including a chunk of new twitter responses. The consensus on twitter is that it's easy for twitter posts to get lot in the stream.
How many followers I have and how many replied to the poll, initially and after the second posting:
A lot of these accounts are dead or bots. On all accounts, but especially livejournal, which is a wasteland, and tumblr, which is a dystopia of bots. But regardless, dreamwidth is the place I got the most active response from by any measure.
How things divide up by blog:
The final response is "It just occurred to me that answers here might be public" (actually, not entirely ;))
The livejournal user and mastodon user are the same person, who also follows all the other accounts and was born in the 70s. Sup, fellow 70s child, glad you like my content!
People who only follow one blog:
sqbr @ tumblr: 3
alias_sqbr @ tumblr: 0
sqbr @ dreamwidth: 11
alias_sqbr @ dreamwidth: 7
sqbr @ twitter: 7
sqbr @ im-in.space: 0
alias_sqbr @ livejournal: 0
What you all think sqbr means:
Square Bear: 33%
Square Bracket: 18%
Chosen at random: 15%
Senatus Quadrum Bestia Risum: 11%
It's my initials: 9%
Square Root of Bel-Robinson: 6%
Squibber: 3%
Science Quiz Bowl Rebel: 3%
Satan's Quintessential Bagel Reamer: 1%
Speed, Quickness, Balance, Rhythm: 1%
Other: 21%
The "other" answers were variations on "I never thought about it"/"don't care" and that it is some play on SPQR.
And the correct answer is: Square Bear! It's a childhood nickname I used as inspiration when I had to decide on a uni email address on short notice, working on the (largely correct) assumption it wouldn't be taken. I've been using it online since 1997. The other answers are the ideas other folk have had for what it means, as well as some stuff I found via googling.
I also got some really nice personal comments but they seemed kinda private so I'll just say thank you! And thank you to everyone who answered the poll, and everyone who didn't, you're all cool :)
Full age data:
Thoughts:
I'm 39, born right at the end of the 1970s, and seem to attract followers who are slightly younger on average. There's a whole bunch born in the 80s but while older followers cover a wide range of ages, I don't seem to have many who are more than a decade younger. Which makes sense to me: the difference between me and a 65 year old is a lot less than that between me and a 15 year old.
I did an age poll on dreamwidth in 2010, back then the largest demographic was folk born in the 70s, though those born in the 80s weren't far behind. I don't know if the change is a sign of dreamwidth readers getting younger in general, or something to do with my followers in particular.
It's worth noting that the people who did the poll are not a random sample of my followers. I know I've had the odd person born in the 2000s follow me on tumblr, but it's possible they feel too shy to interact with me, even via a poll, because I'm so much older. Also I am fairly sure there are a reasonable number of people who only follow me on alias_sqbr at tumblr, but since that's my art account, those who only follow me there are more likely to want to passively consume my content.
If this is you, or you otherwise didn't feel like taking the poll, that's ok! I 100% support those who want to lurk or whatever.
Ages:
Some very unreliable average ages:
total average: 39
dreamwidth average: 40
tumblr average: 34
twitter average: 35
After the first time I posted the poll, it settled at around 55 answers, seventy percent of which were from dreamwidth. Which I find really interesting! After the second posting I have 69, including a chunk of new twitter responses. The consensus on twitter is that it's easy for twitter posts to get lot in the stream.
How many followers I have and how many replied to the poll, initially and after the second posting:
| Site | Followers | Initial | Second |
|---|---|---|---|
| sqbr @ tumblr | 671 | 12 (2%) | 16(2%) |
| alias_sqbr @ tumblr | 215 | 8 (4%) | 8 (4%) |
| sqbr @ dreamwidth | 213 | 32 (15%) | 46 (22%) |
| alias_sqbr @ dreamwidth | 179 | 41 (23%) | 43 (24%) |
| sqbr @ twitter | 197 | 10 (5%) | 16 (8%) |
| sqbr @ im-in.space | 16 | 1 (6%) | 1 (6%) |
| alias_sqbr @ livejournal | 133 | 1 (1%) | 1 (1%) |
A lot of these accounts are dead or bots. On all accounts, but especially livejournal, which is a wasteland, and tumblr, which is a dystopia of bots. But regardless, dreamwidth is the place I got the most active response from by any measure.
How things divide up by blog:
The final response is "It just occurred to me that answers here might be public" (actually, not entirely ;))
The livejournal user and mastodon user are the same person, who also follows all the other accounts and was born in the 70s. Sup, fellow 70s child, glad you like my content!
People who only follow one blog:
sqbr @ tumblr: 3
alias_sqbr @ tumblr: 0
sqbr @ dreamwidth: 11
alias_sqbr @ dreamwidth: 7
sqbr @ twitter: 7
sqbr @ im-in.space: 0
alias_sqbr @ livejournal: 0
What you all think sqbr means:
Square Bear: 33%
Square Bracket: 18%
Chosen at random: 15%
Senatus Quadrum Bestia Risum: 11%
It's my initials: 9%
Square Root of Bel-Robinson: 6%
Squibber: 3%
Science Quiz Bowl Rebel: 3%
Satan's Quintessential Bagel Reamer: 1%
Speed, Quickness, Balance, Rhythm: 1%
Other: 21%
The "other" answers were variations on "I never thought about it"/"don't care" and that it is some play on SPQR.
And the correct answer is: Square Bear! It's a childhood nickname I used as inspiration when I had to decide on a uni email address on short notice, working on the (largely correct) assumption it wouldn't be taken. I've been using it online since 1997. The other answers are the ideas other folk have had for what it means, as well as some stuff I found via googling.
I also got some really nice personal comments but they seemed kinda private so I'll just say thank you! And thank you to everyone who answered the poll, and everyone who didn't, you're all cool :)
Full age data:
| age | all | tumblr | dreamwidth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 1960s | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| 1970s | 17 | 2 | 17 | 1 |
| 1980s | 35 | 12 | 24 | 9 |
| 1990s | 7 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
Thoughts:
I'm 39, born right at the end of the 1970s, and seem to attract followers who are slightly younger on average. There's a whole bunch born in the 80s but while older followers cover a wide range of ages, I don't seem to have many who are more than a decade younger. Which makes sense to me: the difference between me and a 65 year old is a lot less than that between me and a 15 year old.
I did an age poll on dreamwidth in 2010, back then the largest demographic was folk born in the 70s, though those born in the 80s weren't far behind. I don't know if the change is a sign of dreamwidth readers getting younger in general, or something to do with my followers in particular.
It's worth noting that the people who did the poll are not a random sample of my followers. I know I've had the odd person born in the 2000s follow me on tumblr, but it's possible they feel too shy to interact with me, even via a poll, because I'm so much older. Also I am fairly sure there are a reasonable number of people who only follow me on alias_sqbr at tumblr, but since that's my art account, those who only follow me there are more likely to want to passively consume my content.
If this is you, or you otherwise didn't feel like taking the poll, that's ok! I 100% support those who want to lurk or whatever.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-01 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-01 06:47 am (UTC)Numbeerrrssss