WTF do People Talk About on MySpace? LOL

Now that Technorati is tracking MySpace blogs, we can see what topics MySpace bloggers find interesting. Technorati tracks the terms used on blogs they index, so spikes in word usage this past week - other than caused by news stories - can likely be attributed to the addition of MySpace blogs to Technorati's search engine.

Here are a few examples of terms that appear to be popular with MySpacers. A bump near the end of the graph (starting 8 bars before the end) represents the influence MySpace has had on Technorati's content. The last three days are consistently low, apparently due to a glitch at Technorati.

Note: If you're easily offended by the language of today's youth, stop here.

Apparently, MySpace users like beer (and so did non-MySpace bloggers on St. Patrick's Day):

And next thing you know, they're drunk (or was it their friends who got drunk?):

Sometimes they prefer to keep it green:

Followed by a burrito run:

I'm not sure why they're so hateful, calling people bitches:

Or fags:

Or sluts:

Considering the average MySpace user's age, it's strange that they don't find Iraq bloggable material:

Or Baghdad:

But they do talk about things closer to home, like new nephews:

Or Funerals:

Should advertisers care about MySpace users? Well, brewers should, and probably car companies:

And real estate companies:

Do MySpace users really say WTF?

So often, I'm ROFLMAO:

But more than anything else, they talk about MySpace:

they really need to normalize their data... a bunch of identical humps doesn't say much..

Fair point, Bob. The graphs show how often MySpace bloggers talk about certain topic vs. other blogger rather than what topics are the most blogged about topics overall on MySpace. That would be harder data to gather at this point, since no site that I'm aware of ranks topics blogged about most often on MySpace or any other site. Technorati does on a real-time basis for blogs overall, but nothing consistent with the graphs used here.

On Iraq specifically, there was no bump in mentions post-MySpace indexing, so while it's certainly talked about a lot on blogs, the MySpace mentions appear to be quite low.

Carmen, with millions of users, I think it's safe to assume that there are a lot of "real discussions" going on on MySpace. How many "real discussions" are happening out of 69 million or so users is debatable, but how is that different from any blogging platform?

Not all of the humps are identical. Some topics are more popular than others on MySpace. That's the point.

Technorati presents graphs the way they do for the same reason I presented them they way I did: to show relative differences in the use of terms over time.

Isn't it wonderful what today's youth are talking about? Thank goodness this doesn't represent all of todays youth.

I love it...this is really great analysis...thanks for sharing your discoveries.

Is there an age limit on myspace? I was really disappointed at the feedback about my ripe young age of 59. They asked me why I am on the site. My answer: My business not yours.
Just bring me a cup of tea, my walker and my heating pad and watch my stocks retire me in great financial condition.
Have a great old fart day!!!

There's no upper age limit, but there is a lot of debate about the minimum age for MySpace users these days. MySpace - or something like it - could be HUGE with the heating pad crowd.

Comments

1. Posted by: Bob Matsuoka on April 6, 2006 9:24 PM:

You've sort of missed the point by putting these graphs separately and using proportionate scaling. They should be shown together using a single scale. Then we can really see how beer is discussed 5x more frequently than weed. Or that Iraq is "discussed" MORE frequently than either. Far more than "new car".

Seems that you yourself missed the point a bit on that one.

--b

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