
Small share of U.S. adults produce majority of tweets on national politics - ajna91
https://www.people-press.org/2019/10/23/national-politics-on-twitter-small-share-of-u-s-adults-produce-majority-of-tweets/
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romaaeterna
Journalism would only be improved if every journalist got off of Twitter
tomorrow. It's not representative of mainstream opinion. And the artificially
created and cultivated Twitter echo chamber couldn't help but warp anybody's
neutrality. Unfortunately, it's still seen as the best way to drive clicks.

~~~
blfr
Journalism is over. It doesn't matter what journalists do now. It was a by-
product of mass media massive ad business which is being quickly taken over by
tech companies.

~~~
spinach
Isn't journalism a pillar of democracy? The well educated professionals who
deep, lengthy dives into corruption, raw data, etc. How will democracy survive
if no is being paid to spends weeks, years, to go deep on a subject and
citizens can't be fully informed?

~~~
jdkee
"Democracy dies in darkness."

~~~
paulddraper
Is that a warning, or a mission objective?

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paulddraper
The real number is that _10% of Twitter users_ [1] produce 97% of political
Tweets.

(I.e. this is "just" one social media site, used by a minority of Americans.)

[1] [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-
of-u-...](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/10/share-of-u-s-
adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-is-mostly-unchanged-since-2018/)

~~~
0xcde4c3db
Also, it's 97% of political tweets _from US adults that mentioned national
politics from June 10, 2018, through June 9, 2019_ , not 97% of all political
tweets (many of which are on behalf of organizations).

~~~
sandworm101
And was it only american politics? We outside often wonder how often tweets
about our politics come from american accounts.

~~~
wil421
We inside wonder how many of the political tweets or memes being shared are
from Eastern Europe troll farms. I recently read about a Polish troll farm
running “Blue lives matter” groups. The purpose was profit not propaganda like
the Russian farms.

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rdiddly
A cautionary tale for those who are perennially tempted to think Twitter =
"the world" or that Twitter is like sooo super important and that it
"matters."

Granted, wishful thinking by said parties is sometimes enough to make it
matter. For example a corporation that responds to customer complaints on
Twitter faster than the ones that arrive in its customer-service inbox, is
making Twitter matter more than it does.

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modeless
If you, like me, find the non-political part of Twitter valuable, I have
discovered that Twitter has built in filtering tools.

It's pretty simple. Each time I see a tweet I dislike, I pick one word from it
and add it to my "mute word" list. It's now filled with words like "trump",
"liberal", "minister", etc, and now I see interesting technical discussions
instead of political trash.

~~~
virmundi
Serious question: what is the benefit of Twitter? I never understood it. Since
you’ve found a utility niche, would you expand on the statement?

~~~
throw_m239339
Marketing, It's great for brands or anybody that has something to sell (a
book, a product, an idea,...).

It kind of replaced RSS for many people, expect it's a centralised tool.

Unfortunately "journalists" use it way too often to make up news out of
nothing, gather random photos/videos without fact checking and spread rumors
and falsehoods as truth. Something like the Covington Catholic school fiasco
heavily relayed by the media, based on a footage where people saw what they
wanted to see, would have never happened without the viral aspect of Twitter.
The irony is that Twitter ended up banning the person that spread it, but none
of the Twitter verified people that called for the murder of school students.

~~~
3pt14159
Eh. I dated a nationally recognized journalist / writer. They use it to
network and follow trends. Or, if they're working on a story someone else has
covered, to see if there is anything that that person could share that didn't
make it into the article (background conversations, etc).

When it comes to the actual work though she spend 99% of her time at the
library, archives, prison, or on the phone with sources.

------
pixelmonkey
See the 1% rule of the internet:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_\(Internet_culture\))

“... only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the
other 99% of the participants only lurk.”

This is why “social listening” companies (which often amount to “Twitter
listening” companies) present a very warped picture of reality when they try
to extrapolate general consumer interests from the content and frequency of
posts by a tiny minority of Twitter’s users. I also discussed this a little in
“Twitter’s growth conundrum”: [https://muckhacker.com/the-twitter-growth-
conundrum-8339eda1...](https://muckhacker.com/the-twitter-growth-
conundrum-8339eda162a4)

~~~
sandworm101
If twitter is bad now, imagine the horror if the silent 99 start speaking up.
1% is more than enough.

~~~
tozeur
That’s assuming the rest have the same behaviors as the 1%, which they
inherently do not.

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bradlys
Not really a surprise - is it? I bet [small-percentage]% of Americans produce
[very-large-percentage]% of tech tweets too. Same with sewing tweets. Same
with porn tweets.

Being very active in politics is either a career choice or a hobby. And very
active in this case means talking about it. It's like knowing about celebrity
gossip at this point because that's practically what it is for a lot of this
stuff.

~~~
0xcde4c3db
The most surprising thing to me is the split in age distribution among user
base vs. overall tweeting vs. political tweeting. Users 18-49 were 73% of the
user base and produced 72% of tweets, but only 27% of political tweets. Users
50+ were only 26% of the user base and produced only 28% of tweets, but 73% of
political tweets.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> Users 18-49 were 73% of the user base and produced 72% of tweets, but only
> 27% of political tweets.

> Users 50+ were only 26% of the user base and produced only 28% of tweets,
> but 73% of political tweets.

By these numbers, users 15-17 are <1% of the user base and produce 0% of
political tweets. (And even more dramatically, despite being more than 0% of
users, they also produce 0% of tweets.) Even after allowing for rounding, this
can't possibly be correct.

~~~
0xcde4c3db
I calculated the percentages for two groups from a chart of four groups, so
maybe there's more possible rounding error than you anticipated? The user base
numbers in that chart do only add up to 99%, though.

~~~
thaumasiotes
Looking at the graphic in the article, it looks like their denominator is "all
tweets from US adults". In other words, users 15-17 make 0% of "tweets" by
definition. But of course, they are well over 0% of tweets in the ordinary
sense.

I see no particular reason why tweets from 18-year-olds are especially more
interesting than tweets from 17-year-olds.

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algaeontoast
People generally, especially in younger generations need to accept that the
internet != the real world.

I’ve had a number of friends on both sides of the isle fall into the internet
trap of politics, existential dread and dilution. A few to the extent of
developing serious mental health problems, even college educated people.

It’s scary to watch this happen to people you know and love. Some might label
me, but I enjoy not wasting time following the mainstream media / social media
noise.

~~~
standardUser
On a much larger scale, _nothing_ equals the real world because the real world
is endlessly complicated. To take in the breadth and depth of human
perspectives and experiences is simply impossible. This is only a problem when
people fail to realize they are only seeing as tiny, unrepresentative sliver
so they can adjust their reactions accordingly.

~~~
algaeontoast
I think if more people had an elementary understanding of statistics the
values you mentioned would be better understood and considered in common
discourse. It’s really kind of sad.

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buboard
It's baffling why people think it's OK to retweet political stuff just because
everyone else does it. If your profile says "data expert" or anything, why
then do i get political propaganda when i follow you? At least have the
decency to add "and political commentator" to your profile

~~~
endorphone
Twitter accounts, like many other venues, are generally _the person_. And
while the person might be known to you through one slice of their life (the
part that has value to you), that doesn't deny them having other beliefs and
opinions. Unless you're paying for their tweets, your opinion on what they
should be limited to talking seems remarkably irrelevant.

Having said that, twitter is a profoundly destructive force that is
overwhelmingly people just preaching and clucking at each other's cleverness.
I absolutely revile it as a platform, but I get and appreciate that it
provides value for others.

~~~
buboard
i don't buy this argument. Most prominent people go on twitter for a reason -
to disseminate their work or something, the days of salad photos are over.
They get something out of it.

------
tptacek
How could this be surprising? A small fraction of the population of America is
a Twitter user in the first place.

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synt4x1k0
> Prolific political tweeters make up just 6% of _all Twitter users_ but
> generate 20% of all tweets and 73% of tweets mentioning national politics.

I feel like this wording is disingenuous when the methods state:

> The analysis of Twitter users in this report is based on a nationally
> representative survey conducted from Nov. 21 to Dec. 17, 2018, among a
> sample of 2,791 U.S. adults ages 18 years and older who have a Twitter
> account and agreed to allow researchers to follow and report on that
> account. This study examines only the subset of respondents (N=2,427)

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mac_was
The rest is busy working, studying, raising kids or having a life...

~~~
aoeusnth1
I have a life, job and kids. I occasionally tweet about Andrew Yang. Not sure
why that would interfere with the former.

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cheese4242
Further reason why the "x political thing is trending on twitter" style
headline that has become ubiquitous is stupid.

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mrj
I grepped for "bot" on this, the source and their methodology page. Bot
activity on Twitter is especially high and not at least mentioning how they
accounted for that kinda voids this whole effort. It'd be very interesting to
identify the political leanings of automated posts. I bet they could analyze
the messages to determine bot networks. Disappointed this wasn't considered.

~~~
yorwba
They only looked at tweets by people who previously agreed to participate in
the study, so their data cannot be used to analyze automated posts.

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douglaswlance
And your life is much better off if you mute those people.

------
Merrill
Wonder what percentage of Americans produce 97% of main stream media news and
commentary? Would it be over 0.2%?

~~~
mr_toad
Not many, if these stats are accurate:

[https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-
communication/home.htm](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-
communication/home.htm)

Also, they don’t get paid all that well.

------
reaperducer
_2.2% of Americans produce 97% of political tweets_

I guess people act the same online as they do at Thanksgiving dinner.

------
Cougher
Twitter is to political thought what advertising slogans are to consumer goods
or soundbites are to news stories. "It's the real thing" tells us nothing
meaningful about Coca Cola. "Just do it" tells us nothing meaningful about
Nike sneakers. Slogans, tweets, and soundbites are designed to influence our
thinking with catchy thoughts INSTEAD OF informed thought. The ability to
create concise content is different than the ability to analyze and understand
on a deep level; not mutually exclusive of course, but it doesn't really
matter: the masses will be overwhelmingly influenced by the former rather than
the latter.

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baron816
That comes out to about 6 million people? Seems like a huge number to me.

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SmartJerry
Only a small share of people who use twitter actually tweet and yes a smaller
share of those people tweet on a specific subject. I'm no sure how this is
news. "Only a small share of U.S. adults product majority of tweets on
______." Fill in the blank.. only those interest in a topic will tweet about
it.

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fnord77
in the methodology section, the said they only focussed on tweets concerning
national-level politics.

they don’t mention if they attempted to filter out bots or non-americansposing
as Americans

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jpindar
A very small percentage of people write books, does that mean we'd be better
off without books?

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baby
aligns with the 1-2% community contribution factor:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_\(Internet_culture\))

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mhb
And <1% read them?

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cmrdporcupine
So what % of Americans _read_ the political tweets?

~~~
symplee
Much lower than the percentage that read _articles_ about the tweets.

But nevertheless, the content finds its way.

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awinter-py
is 13% an unusual rate for a topic? are the bulk of sports / cooking / science
/ art tweets also each from a 13% slice?

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Semiapies
You could cross out those last three words.

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itronitron
what percent of tweets are political?

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herostratus101
Unsurprising

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prawn
What percentage of TV users generate any content on television?

Many people just spectate, whether it’s TV or social.

~~~
jordache
that is a poor analogy at best. Everyone is intuitive on the amount of
friction it takes to get content onto broadcast or cable TV. No one is
delusional.

There is relatively zero amount of friction for a twitter user to post
political content to twitter. The fact that people are not posting political
content, is not due to insurmountable friction.

~~~
prawn
I thought that went without saying. My point is, why would anyone be surprised
that not everyone speaks up? The fact that everyone can tweet doesn’t mean
that they do. Friction of calling radio talk back is low, but I’ve never done
it. Letters to the editor also.

~~~
jordache
friction of calling a radio talk show is orders of magnitudes more than
retweeting some political tweet.

