A new study outlined by New Scientist argues that much of going viral on Twitter is random and has little to do with the quality of information. The controversial study by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington analyzed 120 million retweets by 12.5 million users. They created a simulated version of Twitter and dispersed the tweets at random to discover some became incredibly popular and persistently reposted, while others were immediately forgotten.
Clearly this isn’t true. I struggled through choosing key topics to highlight in this week’s Twitter Verse due to the heaviness of the content dialogue. This week’s top trends were overall highly political and the tenacity behind each tweet was backed by undeniable emotion. The study might prove true for random hash tags such as #PartyOnWayne, which trended globally for fun but no real socioeconomic reason this week, but it doesn’t explain the merit behind this week’s top trending issues.
Local
Toronto interspersed sex, drugs and rock’n’roll amongst its top trends this week. #Happy420, cush, marley and marijuana have been happily trending in harmony, though many locals have critiqued the chill vibe of the trend as today is also the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. CHCH viewers kicked their mornings off with some hardcore gay porn sliced in the midst of their morning news and headed to the ‘verse. CHCH news director Mike Katryck told the Hamilton Spectator that the footage did not originate from parent station Channel Zero, which operates numerous adult movie stations. Lucky/unlucky viewers tweeted with hilarity and humiliation, but there were a surprising lack of Tyler Durden/Fight Club references. In music news, Toronto continues to mourn the loss of iconic performer Levon Helm, the drummer/singer of The Band who passed away this week from cancer at age 71. At this point in the day, Toronto is less serious than the rest of the world.
National
Canadian trends remain political this week with talk over the Alberta election under #Abvote. The provincial campaign is nearing an end and the results are expected to have national implications. The Wildrose Party is ahead of the Conservatives who have held provincial standing since 1971. Leader Danielle Smith (pictured above) maintains a seven-point lead over PC Premier Alison Redford. The Wildrose Party’s politics vary widely from the PC and could potentially make the province operate independently and similar to Quebec. Critics worry about the impact this could have on natural resources, with Alberta being home to our nation’s oil sands. The election is Monday April 23, so expect this trend to soar over the weekend and continue through next week.
International
The world still wants justice for Trayvon Martin, the unarmed 17-year-old gunned down by neighborhood watch George Zimmerman. But this time the attention has turned to #Zimmerman. The gunman has been granted a $150,000 bond from jail. He will be placed under GPS monitoring, but is not expected to be released from custody today because his family can’t afford it. Zimmerman’s attorney requested $15,000 bail instead, but was denied. This morning in court, Zimmerman apologized directly to Martin’s family. While most of the Tweet chat surrounds dishevel over the announcement, several supporters continue to tweet their support of the decision due to good behaviour. An honourable trend goes to #50liesIwastold. The tag continues to trend internationally on a somewhat depressing level. I’ve seen “it will get better” posted multiple times, suggesting the world should not lose its focus on preventing and stopping bullies.
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Sheena Lyonnais writes about tech for Toronto Standard. You can follow her on Twitter at @SheenaLyonnais.
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