Always wondered what your reading level would be based on the quality of your tweets? No? Well, **Time magazine have decided to work it out for you anyway.
Time has used a reading comprehension survey known as SMOG (Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook) to work out how complex the messages we send on social media are, based on our last 20. It turns out, the average reading level of most tweets is fourth grade (ie: aged eight), which is fairly depressing (although, they do point out that constructing a complex message in 140 characters is a challenge in itself).
Anyway, we tried it, and our tweets are sixth grade level, one higher than Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, and one lower than Barack Obama which seems… like pretty fair summary of the world order, actually.
If anything, we’re fairly surprised that Justin Bieber’s tweeting at a reading level higher than the world average – maybe he got bonus points for this totally boss Instagram video of Tom Hanks’ wedding dancing, which has been giving us the lolz all morning?
Anyway, try it for yourself and see what your reading level is. If you want to rig the game by posting a few highly-complex tweets beforehand, a few users tweets were deemed to be at a 12th Grade reading level of complexity, like this one from a senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York:
Design and violence: Nivedita Menon’s powerful essay on the mini-revolver marketed to women by the Indian government http://t.co/sE5bH6NcAA
— Paola Antonelli (@curiousoctopus) July 5, 2014
Is this a sign that we’re losing our literacy skills in the face of social media’s increasing global hegemony? Perhaps, but mainly we’re just relieved to be one higher than Bieber.
Follow Rebecca on Twitter @rebecca_hol
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.