Showerthought: I just learned something wild about how many questions get asked online every minute

I was reading a report from a tech research group called Domo earlier today. It said that across all the major platforms, people post over 3.5 million questions every single minute. That's a huge number, and it really hit me how much we all just want to know stuff. I found this while looking up stats for a small project I'm doing. It makes this whole 'ask anything' space feel way bigger than I thought. Has anyone else stumbled on a fact about online communities that just seemed crazy at first?

3 comments

3 Comments

taraross7d agoMost Upvoted

I read once that Wikipedia has over 70,000 active editors. The idea that many people are constantly fixing typos and adding facts for free always seemed strange to me. It is a different kind of online drive than asking questions, but just as massive. That scale of quiet, unpaid work is what feels crazy to me.

the_thomas7d ago

I used to think it was weird too until I saw the edit history for my hometown's page. Someone fixed the population number the same day the new census data came out. That's when it clicked for me, like @taraross said, it's a huge group of people just quietly making things right. They'll fix a typo in an article about a 17th century poet or add a new mayor's election date. It's not for money, it's just this shared need to have the facts straight for everyone.

jamie_adams7d ago

My friend found his own obituary edited for accuracy.