Yesterday I observed people's Facebook status updates and tried to quantify them in a meaningful way. I think 11/73 mentioned the Super Bowl in their Facebook status on Monday, so I wanted to compare that to the amount of people who mentioned Super Tuesday, or politics, or elections in their status.2/73 people mentioned the election, and both of them were from Seattle. Well, one was from Seattle and the other lived in Seattle with the other guy from Seattle (seriously). One person, who I met in an English class in college, had a picture of Obama on his profile, but his status was still about the Super Bowl--so I didn't count it (maybe I should have).
But I don't really think it's all that strange that people don't have resoundingly political status updates, I really don't. No one I know cares about American Idol, and yet, everyone is apparently watching it. What I mean is, just because something is on the minds of a lot of people, doesn't mean that Facebook will reflect that. That said, I think it's fair to assume that Facebook actually revealed something kind of meaningful. People really do give the Super Bowl more thought than Super Tuesday. I didn't even know what Super Tuesday was until I wikipedia-d it a few weeks ago.
So is it a bad that people are talking about football and not politics? No, absolutely not, because that doesn't necessarily mean they're not voting. I don't write about paying my electric bill, or talking to my parents on the phone, or writing emails to people I haven't talked to in a while. Usually when I'm in the course of doing those things my status says something like,"Marc is... naming the five greaters rappers of all time: Marc, Marc, Marc, Marc, and Marc. Because I spit hot fire."
So there you go.
1 comment:
Clearly, you have apathetic Facebook friends. Three thousand of mine mention politics. Ok, maybe, like, eleven, but it's a lot.
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