Twitter Politics
August 31, 2012
Oh, goody, more predictive silliness. TechNewsWorld informs us, “Twindex Tracks Pols’ Twitter Temperatures.” Clever name, though it does make me think more about window cleaning than about politics. That’s ok; window cleaning is the more engaging subject.
The full name of the metric is the Twitter Political Index, and it tracks tweeters’ daily thoughts about the two presidential candidates. Twitter created the index with the help of Topsy Labs and pollsters at the Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research. The polling firms helped validate and tune the algorithms. It is Topsy’s job to track tweets for certain terms and compare sentiment on each candidate. So far, the incumbent seems to be well ahead in the Twittersphere.
But how far can we trust the Twindex? Probably not very far. Writer Richard Adhikari observes:
“The Pew Research Center has found that only 15 percent of adults online use Twitter. On a typical day, that figure is only 8 percent. . . .
“Overall, nearly 30 percent of young adults use Twitter, up from 18 percent the previous year. One in five people aged 18 to 24 uses Twitter on a typical day.
“Further, 11 percent of adults aged 25 to 34 use Twitter on a typical day.
“African-Americans are also heavy Twitter users, with 28 percent of them using Twitter overall and 13 percent doing so on a typical day.
“Urban and suburban residents are also significantly more likely to use Twitter than those in rural areas, Pew found.”
So, yeah, statistically Democrats are likely to fare better among Twitter users than Republicans. This index is about as valuable as any political echo chamber—for entertainment only. Personally, I’d rather be washing windows.
Cynthia Murrell, August 31, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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