Handling of online information by users: evidence from TED talks

an article by M. Utku Özmen (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, Ankara, Turkey) and  Eray Yucel (Ihsan Dogramaci Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey) published in Behaviour and Information Technology Volume 38 Issue 12 (2019)

Abstract

This paper studies how people search for, choose, process and evaluate information provided online. In this context, the study analyses how the content and context of online information are related to the length of information and to user ratings.

Employing naturalistic data that cover the titles, durations and viewer-assigned ratings/tags of more than two-thousand TED talks, the paper investigates whether

1. the talk duration is related to viewer-assigned ratings,
2. there is a link between the talk duration and attention driving factors (title words), and
3. the ex-ante wording of talks’ titles and ex-post user-assigned ratings are connected.

The findings show that talks with certain end-user ratings have significantly different length, most strikingly, talks first rated as persuasive are on average 35% longer than talks first rated as ingenious. Also the inclusion of certain words in the talk title significantly affects both the talk duration and end-user ratings.

For instance, talks whose title include ‘child’ are on average 27% longer than other talks; or talks whose title include ‘brain’ are 57% more likely to be rated as fascinating than others.

Overall, the paper reveals regularities regarding information processing attitudes, attention and subjective evaluations of online information users.

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10 Best Ted Talks About Procrastination That Will Ignite Your Motivation

a post by Ankit Garg for the Lifehacker blog

There are two types of people in this world; one who wants to complete their work as early as possible and one who wants to delay it as much they can. The first category of this depicts ‘precrastinators’ and the latter one are termed as ‘procrastinators’.

Much has been researched and published about procrastination; most of the studies terming it as detrimental to one’s health and adding to stress levels. Though, there are ‘procrastinating apologists’ as you would call them who proclaim there are a few benefits of it as well. But scientists have argued that the detriments of procrastination far outweigh the short-term benefits of it.

Everybody procrastinates, but not everybody is a procrastinator. Procrastination is habitual, not situational.

For an employee, it means piling up work until the end hours of their shift and then completing it in a hurry. For a student, it means not studying for an exam that is due the next week and cramming up the whole book one night before.

If you fall into this category, do not worry, there have also been articles published and speeches given by successful leaders on how procrastinators aren’t so bad after all.

Here are 10 of the best Ted Talks you can watch to change how you perceive procrastination:

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I particularly like number 3, from the blurb. No, I have not watched them all.

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