The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin'
This paper uses geolocated Twitter histories from approximately 25,000 individuals in 6 different time zones and 3 different countries to construct a proper time-zone dependent hourly baseline for social media activity studies. We establish that, across multiple regions and time periods, interacti...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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HOPE
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
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| Online Access: | https://journalqd.org/article/view/2578 |
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| _version_ | 1849237520673406976 |
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| author | Sean Kates Joshua Tucker Jonathan Nagler Richard Bonneau |
| author_facet | Sean Kates Joshua Tucker Jonathan Nagler Richard Bonneau |
| author_sort | Sean Kates |
| collection | DOAJ |
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This paper uses geolocated Twitter histories from approximately 25,000 individuals in 6 different time zones and 3 different countries to construct a proper time-zone dependent hourly baseline for social media activity studies. We establish that, across multiple regions and time periods, interaction with social media is strongly conditioned by traditional bio-rhythmic or “Circadian” patterns, and that in the United States, this pattern is itself further conditioned by the ideological bent of the user. Using a time series of these histories around the 2016 US Presidential election, we show that external events of great significance can disrupt traditional social media activity patterns, and that this disruption can be significant (in some cases doubling the amplitude and shifting the phase of activity up to an hour). We find that the disruption of use patterns can last an extended period of time, and in many cases, aspects of this disruption would not be detected without a circadian baseline.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1202c57c810345d7bcaf41f2098a06fe |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2673-8813 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | HOPE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media |
| spelling | doaj-art-1202c57c810345d7bcaf41f2098a06fe2025-08-20T04:01:57ZengHOPEJournal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media2673-88132021-04-01110.51685/jqd.2021.017The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin'Sean Kates0Joshua Tucker1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1321-8650Jonathan Nagler2Richard Bonneau3University of PennsylvaniaNew York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University This paper uses geolocated Twitter histories from approximately 25,000 individuals in 6 different time zones and 3 different countries to construct a proper time-zone dependent hourly baseline for social media activity studies. We establish that, across multiple regions and time periods, interaction with social media is strongly conditioned by traditional bio-rhythmic or “Circadian” patterns, and that in the United States, this pattern is itself further conditioned by the ideological bent of the user. Using a time series of these histories around the 2016 US Presidential election, we show that external events of great significance can disrupt traditional social media activity patterns, and that this disruption can be significant (in some cases doubling the amplitude and shifting the phase of activity up to an hour). We find that the disruption of use patterns can last an extended period of time, and in many cases, aspects of this disruption would not be detected without a circadian baseline. https://journalqd.org/article/view/2578social mediaideological conditionalitybiorhythms |
| spellingShingle | Sean Kates Joshua Tucker Jonathan Nagler Richard Bonneau The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin' Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media social media ideological conditionality biorhythms |
| title | The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin' |
| title_full | The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin' |
| title_fullStr | The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin' |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin' |
| title_short | The Times They Are Rarely A-Changin' |
| title_sort | times they are rarely a changin |
| topic | social media ideological conditionality biorhythms |
| url | https://journalqd.org/article/view/2578 |
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