"A Japanese writer named Sebuyama undertook a bizarre social
experiment. He would tweet about what he thinks would most likely
grab the attention of fellow Twitter users. The experiment would
end when Sebuyama hit 1000 or more retweets.
"None of his Twitter followers were to be informed of the
experiment until the 1000 retweets goal was reached. In addition,
Sebuyama was forbidden from leaving the office until the goal was
reached.
"A desperate Sebuyama's first tweet was a simple 'Everyone! Please
retweet this!' which got him 52 retweets. He concluded that even
with no content, some people will retweet for you if you ask
nicely.
"After several attempts at tweets about random stuff, Sebuyama
decided to try a radical approach. He tweeted that he would cover
his body in a clothespin for every retweet he got.
"I don't know if he eventually reached his goal of 1000 retweets,
but this whole exercise is an interesting look at the kinds of
content people share on social media platforms. I stopped checkinig
my tweets a long time ago because most of what my Twitter friends
posted was inane stuff."