Kids Curse, Oldsters Ramble: Facebook Study

Analysts probe data for behavioral trends
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 28, 2010 10:13 AM CST
Kids Curse, Oldsters Ramble: Facebook Study
Facebook.com's mastermind, Mark Zuckerberg smiles at his office in Palo Alto, Calif., Monday, Feb. 5, 2007.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

You can learn a lot when you’re listening to 550 million people. Using linguistic software, Facebook analysts investigated what people were saying in status updates, and came up with a number of interesting trends, Business Insider reports:

  • The oldsters chatter quite a bit: Status update length was the best way to predict age. Older people also tend to talk more about religion and family.

  • The young, meanwhile, leave out articles and prepositions, tend to curse more, and use the word “I” frequently.
  • Those who use “you” a lot tend to have more friends.
  • People have positive outlooks in the morning, the time of more upbeat statuses. After 10pm, there’s a negativity surge.
  • Negative status updates garner more comments than positive ones.
  • Friends use similar vocabularies, especially when discussing family and religion or using swear words.
(More Facebook stories.)

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