Ipseology
using large datasets
and computational methods
2023 International Day of Peace and Twitter Bios
Estimating prevalence for symbols of peace in US users' Twitter bios
2023-09-21
September 21 is the International Day of Peace. I wondered if Americans chose to include symbols of peace within descriptions of themselves on Twitter.
When I looked at the data, I found that they do - in low numbers. Let's look at two emojis first: the peace symbol ☮️ and a dove carrying an olive branch 🕊️.
Prevalence of ☮️ and 🕊️ increased. 🕊️ tripled in prevalence from 2022 to 2023.
Peace Hand Sign
Next, let's examine each variation of the victory hand emoji: ✌️, ✌🏼, ✌🏽, ✌🏾, ✌🏿.
Initially, ✌️ was adopted quickly and widely, but peaked and began to drop in prevalence well before the introduction of skin tone modifiers. The skin tone modified versions are similar in prevalence, with one exception. ✌🏿, the dark skin tone did not reach the threshold of 1 per 10,000 users and is thus not included in the dataset and not pictured in the graph.
Aside: Emoji Skin Tone Modifiers
For a quick introduction to the use of skin tone modifiers, I recommend the ICWSM 2018 paper Self-Representation on Twitter Using Emoji Skin Color Modifiers. For more, read Alexander Robertson's 2022 doctoral thesis.
Isn't peace also a word?
Yes, but I saved it until last, because it has the least interesting graph.
While we're on the subject of peace and war, 🇺🇦 please donate to aid the defense of Ukraine 🇺🇦.
Ipseology - Read and explore more
When I show people data like that above, they sometimes ask, "What other words are changing?" The best answer to that question is a long list of links, so here it is:
- Search for trends on any set of words: Jason Jeffrey Jones Identity Trends
- Read a peer-reviewed, open-access research article about political words: Using Twitter Bios to Measure Changes in Self-Identity: Are Americans Defining Themselves More Politically Over Time?
- Read a blog post about the signifiers vegan and vegetarian: There are more self-described vegans than vegetarians among US users of Twitter
- Quickly get familiar with ipseology terminology: Ipseology Glossary