
This is when you're most popular, according to science - randomname2
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/this-is-when-youre-most-popular-according-to-science/
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johnloeber
Frankly: why would anyone even bother publishing this garbage?

It's obvious that "popularity" != cell phone call record frequency. (Note that
age is a severe confounder -- the 50 year-olds in the study most likely did
not even have cell phones at age 25...)

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iak8god
> why would anyone even bother publishing this garbage?

If by "this garbage" you mean this goofy blog post, then that's a good
question. But note that goofy blog posts abound.

The article published in Royal Society Open Science doesn't even mention
"popularity". That's just this goofy blog post's clickbaity take on it, and
basically unrelated to the actual study.

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_quick_q
>> This is when you're most popular, according to science

One study == "according to science"

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a13n
> They found that the average number of people a person calls (or is called
> by) in a given month peaks around age 25.

Number of people you call == how popular you are. How out of touch with the
times...

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projectramo
Consider the following confounding variables:

Having children might reduce the number of people you spend time with.

I have a few other ideas (finding a spouse also cuts down on the amount of
time you spend out looking for one), but that's the big idea.

I wish they would run the numbers adjusting for parenthood.

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_quick_q
I think another valuable point to consider that may actually may understate
popularity of those younger than 25 is that this is only looking at phone
calls. I'm not under 25 anymore, but I think they generally use their phones
for texting and messaging more than calls.

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Broken_Hippo
They analysed one year of phone records for a phone company. And basically
what they found was that 25 year olds actually talk to a wider variety of
people than other age groups... Not popularity. Not how many friends one has,
and not how large one's social circle is.

I'll agree with the others, completely out of touch and a weird click-bait
headline.

Does this stuff actually matter past school? If so, I'm doing life wrong.

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kstenerud
"in most cases, people focus their (phone-based) social effort each month on
around 15 people"

15 people??? Jeez! I had a hard enough time keeping up with 5!

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amadeusw
How come the graph for "Everyone" is not in between of Men and Women?

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havetocharge
Probably more of one gender participated in the study than the other.

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mamurphy
>You're never more popular than you are at age 25.

>Researchers analyzed one full year's worth of cell phone call records for 3.2
million customers of a European telecom company. They found that the average
number of people a person calls (or is called by) in a given month peaks
around age 25. After that, your number of regular social connections nosedives
until age 45 or so. Take a look.

