Schooled by Sharknado

Even I tweeted about this:

Yes, this cheesy movie blew up on Twitter last week. So much so that it was a key component of the ads for tomorrow night’s encore presentation, but outside of Twitter... low ratings. (Lots of talk but no audience just makes it a “cult classic.”) In examining what going viral on Twitter but not making a dent elsewhere means for politics, Ezra Klein wrote:

(T)he first rule of being a political junkie is to always remember that you are a very weird person, and most people are not like you.

This is advice that we science enthusiasts should remember. The first rule of being a science junkie is to always remember that you are a very weird person, and most people are not like you. (Heck, this applies not just to political junkies and science enthusiasts, but fans of anything. You’re a huge rodeo / anime / vinyl record fan? Most people are not like you.)

Here on the science blogosphere, we have particular obsessions that we just can’t stop talking about (pseudonyms, open access, federal funding, tenure and promotion rewards). But most people are not like us. This just isn’t part of their sphere and there are not a huge number of ways to get them to tune in to our show.

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Sharknado shows how out of touch Washington really is