Facebook Lexicon "Talkin’ Bout My Generation"
Facebook has a new feature called Lexicon that “counts occurrences of words and phrases on Walls over time.” It might be a good tool for judging my generation. Obviously there are statistical problems with it, but it’s fun to play around with nonetheless (for instance, people are probably less apt to talk about sex on a public message board than they would be in a private setting). I’m pretty sure that it was just recently launched, but there’s already the Unofficial Facebook Lexicon Blog. Google has a tool similar to Lexicon called Zeitgeist. Below are some interesting searches that I ran.
Clinton vs. Obama – Obama has significantly greater numbers, probably because of his relative popularity with youth. But notice what should be of concern to Obama supporters, activity for both Obama and Clinton has dropped to nearly match pre-primary levels. Interest is waning and fatigue is numbing the short attentions of youth. The graph of McCain vs. Obama looks similar.
Sex vs. Book – Surprisingly, “book” gets more mention than “sex.” However, sex ties in sex vs. books.
Love vs. Hate – Love dominates hate. Notice the spike in love near Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Also notice the slight recession of hate near Christmas.
American Idol vs. President – Mentions of “President” shockingly outperforms American Idol. Obama beats out Idol as well. McCain ties.
Comment by Segen on 23 April 2008 at 8:20 am:
Since many people on Facebook are students, I don’t think the word “President” only applies to the US President…they could also be “President” of their fraternity, an organization, or some other student group.
The word “book” also is probably more frequent because there is a category where you can list your “favorite books”. The word “book” probably might surface in this instance. There is no category for “favorite sex positions”…hence, its probable reason for less frequent usage.
Comment by Billy Joe Mills on 23 April 2008 at 9:07 am:
segen, i think that the data only applies to words written on facebook walls, not in the personal info category.
book might also be counted when people say “facebook”
y’all should post interesting searches that you come up with…or am I the only useless data nerd?
Comment by Anonymous on 23 April 2008 at 9:14 am:
Congratulations on writing one of the most inane posts of the year with absolutely no point!
Comment by thetodd on 23 April 2008 at 9:36 am:
Billy, I wondered the same thing you did about “book” and “facebook”. It seems that saying “facebook” does not cause the “book” count to be incremented.
To see this, try comparing “book” to “boo”. “Boo” would receive more hits than “book” if partial words were counted.
Comment by kofi the billy looks at a pie graph and focuses on the fact that its round on 23 April 2008 at 9:38 am:
This really isn’t supposed to determine whether one word is more popular than another word. The graph has a date axis for a reason. You get close to proper use once when you mention the spikes of love near Valentine’s and Christmas.
Here are some good graphs:
party tonight, hangover – party tonight spikes pretty consistently every weekend, followed almost immediately by a spike in hangover. This kind of reminds me of the way CO2 increases closely follow temperature increases. if you’re a liberal you’ve most likely concluded hangovers cause more parties. If you zoom in on the graph, you’ll notice a minor spike on St. Patrick’s day and a corresponding reduction in the amount of partying the following weekend.
the flu – small peak in January, a decline, then a larger extended peak throughout February. This graph would be even more interesting with a few years worth of data.
american idol – an interesting graph by itself (though an uninteresting graph if used to compare its popularity to another word), the term is dormant for months then spikes to life. Spikes reoccur every week between Tuesday and Wednesday.
britney spears – note the spike on September 9 and 10th, right after her “comeback” performance. Another spike around October 1, when she’s ordered to turn over her children. Another spike at the end of October after she’s involved in a hit and run and told she will not regain custody of her children. Two more spikes in December pacing her court woes. Finally a spike in January when she’s rushed to the hospital.
midterm, final – obviously shows the spikes around midterms and finals.
In summary, its a great tool if you want to look at the echoes of recent history. Its a cultural seismograph. Simply looking at whether one word is more popular than another other the entire span of time (or declaring a ‘tie’ if the two graphs ever intersect) is pointless.
Comment by thetodd on 23 April 2008 at 9:45 am:
Oh – for those who wonder about the Illinois spikes, the first (and biggest) one was when the Illini beat Ohio State, the second was when spot in the Rose Bowl was announced, and the third was the actual Rose Bowl date.
Comment by kofi the notice that the word happy is more popular than sad on 23 April 2008 at 9:47 am:
thetodd, if you just compare “happy, sad” they don’t look very depressed. There are some obvious spikes on that graph (Thanksgiving, New Year, Valentines Day), but what’s with the dive on 2/29 and the spike on 3/23? Do most Vday relationships only last two weeks? And do many of them rekindle the flame three weeks after that?
Comment by thetodd on 23 April 2008 at 9:49 am:
I tried “happy” and “sad” at first, but then I realized that “happy birthday” is one of the most common facebook wall posts of all, and I wanted to try to eliminate its presence.
Comment by thetodd on 23 April 2008 at 9:50 am:
(the dive on 2/29 can probably also be explained by the lack of birthdays on that date)
Comment by kofi the no logic for you on 23 April 2008 at 9:52 am:
Ah good point. It’d be nice if they would allow some boolean logic.
Comment by thetodd on 23 April 2008 at 10:04 am:
Also, you probably realized this by now, but the other spikes also tend to be “happy” holidays (”happy Easter” in the case of March 23).
There’s no Christmas spike because that day tends to be merry instead :)
Comment by kofi the always reads the instructions on 23 April 2008 at 10:14 am:
Yah, I didn’t read the details initially and thought the popularity was based off words in a profile. Taking into consideration the words are appearing in direct communications phrases like “feel sad” make more sense than before.
Comment by Billy Joe Mills on 23 April 2008 at 1:26 pm:
Kofi,
I thought we were friends. Why are you always ripping on me nowadays? Am I not enough of a lunatic conservative for you? Not far right enough for you?
Comment by Katie on 23 April 2008 at 2:45 pm:
Is it just me, or does Facebook always seem to release new applications just in time for finals week?
As if I need more tools to facilitate procrastination.
Billy- love this.