Talk Back: If you don’t wanna go to Zencity
Remember that old saying about the phone ringing off the wall? It happened to us this week. Those little front-mounted bell clangers vibrated so much, the entire wooden box-type ringy-dingy contraption fell to the floor — busting off the horn-shaped doohickey you talk into and snapping the crank on the side in half. And the worst part was there was always a telemarketer on the other end asking the same question.
“Why do you talk that way?”
We didn’t have time to explain because a very important survey had just arrived that we were assured would take only five minutes to complete. Three hours later, we were still pondering a multifaceted question for which a “yes” or “no” response was demanded yet we only agreed with part of it and were vehemently opposed to the other, so how in the world were we supposed to give an accurate answer? Not to mention it was only the fifth question.
And we still had 62 pages to go.
That’s the problem with surveys. Between poor wording and endless hoops to jump through, the data becomes all but meaningless. Take Lenawee County’s just-issued, online-only, quality-of-life questionnaire. It asks about local services — but not if you use them. And if you don’t answer every question, including revealing how much money you make, the system kicks you out.
Because unless you ’fess up, your opinions don’t count.
Creepy, right? But information deemed so crucial to local decision-making, the county happily shelled out 48 grand to data-mining company Zencity — sounds a lot like a Loretta Lynn song, doesn’t it — to make sure it was included in the tabulations. Even though most people will react the way we did when ordered to spill the beans on family income.
Flat out lie.
But Zencity’s main job is to monitor what’s being said on social media about the county and its projects. Every atta-boy, diatribe, heart emoji, and ha-ha face about Lenawee County gets tracked down by its software, categorized and compartmentalized, with the resulting assimilation of 40,000 or so posts, comments and reactions showing up like clockwork on the county’s doorstep every month, ripe for the dissecting.
Can you say Big Brother?
Not so, says Zencity. Every bit is publicly available information. Yeah, but we doubt that’s how the average person views it. Besides, the same holds true for the guys down at the morning coffee klatch who yammer so loudly that anyone within a 5-mile radius can overhear every word. Does that mean the county should hire Eavesdroppers R Us to cull that commentary as well? And while they’re at it, maybe put Alexa on the payroll, too?
To keep tabs on what folks are saying at home.
But even if you label such concerns only fodder for the tinfoil hat crowd, consider this. Despite some commissioners praising Zencity as the only way to find out what young people think — apparently everyone of college age or under is incapable of human speech and only communicates through Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — there’s no way to know if any of the harvested opinions are coming from that age group. Or how many of those 40,000 comments originate from Lenawee County residents. Or what percentage represents just a handful of folks yelling at one another.
Knowing people’s opinions is important. But social media is not the be-all end-all. Furthermore, context and relevance also matter. And if they’re not part of the equation, commissioners should expect to be inundated with phone calls — not from telemarketers — all asking the same question.
Why do you spend big money that way?
Talk Back with Doug Spade and Mike Clement is heard every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern Time on Buzz 102.5 FM and online at www.dougspade.com and www.lenconnect.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Talk Back: If you don’t wanna go to Zencity
