Twitter - welcome to the most parochial conversation ever
Call me a snob, but I've always had the feeling that if you could hear what other people were thinking, it might not be all that interesting.
And boy does Twitter prove me right.
Look at this chart of trending topics from last week, and you'll see what I mean. Britney, Bieber and the Superbowl were all hotter than a hot thing.
At least Egypt managed to scrape in, proving that the Twitterati can see a little further than their own navels, provided the topic's already on television a lot.
But generally, it looks a lot like the conversations you might hear in a not very interesting sixth form common room or the canteen at TopShop.
Simon Robinson
Integrated Creative Director
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Comments
14 February 11
By: Mika
Power of numbers
Very interesting. But, I think that you might be wrong here. This shows what people talk about *most*. Not *all* things people are talking about. It does not mean that if someone tweeted about Lady GaGa, did not also tweet about something astonishing, and life changing. Like healthy and environmentally friendly way to preserve meat.
I would like to confirm this theory. I have been looking but could not find stats to prove or disprove it. (so if anyone finds this out, please respond) that long tail of varied topics outweigh the mundane top 10 trending ones.
I can only find general number of tweets and what trending tweets are, but not how many trending tweets there was.
14 February 11
By: Simon
Cosi fan tutti
So what you're saying is that just because most people are talking about trivia, it doesn't mean that fewer people might still be talking about really interesting things? I agree. And that's what makes Twitter a genuine speculum mundi, in my book. I'm afraid I don't have the figures behind the figures, but would be intrigued if anyone could find them...
14 February 11
By: Mika
Power of numbers
Something like that. But not fewer people. I meant more people ;) I was thinking how does longtail added together relates to top 10 trending topics.
Same argument as why (in the good old days) publishers used to have massive stores packed with thousands of CD's. Surely, they could have a smaller stores and sell only stuff from the charts, but it turns out they made more money selling Prokofiev, Ornstein, and Jigme Drukpa than Madonna.
So I am thinking if a 100 people talk about Lady GaGa, that trends. But if you have 1000 people talking about 1000 topics none of them will trend. But they are still there, and people are still talking about them. And more than they talk about Lady GaGa. But how do you make a headline about this? People are talking about stuff? Not very appealing.
I am really keen to find these stats now. Thanks for ruining my evening.
14 February 11
By: Simon
Aah, I getcha
That would be a brilliant and contrary idea. There could be lots more gold on Twitter that people haven't yet found because they don't know how to look for it. And we know that viral phenomena typically have long tails, and that Twitter is essentially viral, so it should behave in the same way. You didn't have anything else planned for this evening, did you?
16 February 11
By: Mika
number theory
Is still unproven. Few days later, and I do not think I will be able to get these numbers. Shame.