This is a map filtering a couple million tweets for profanity during the months of April and May, 2010. It was created by Daniel Huffman by filtering 1.5 million public tweets for profanity and mapping the iso-somethings. Dark spots are highly profane. Lights spots, they stick to “goshdarn.”
Observations:
1. North = more profane than the south… possibly people bitching about the weather?
2. That big dark patch left of center? Utah.
3. Eastern seaboard seems pretty tame. Including D.C. Maybe Rahm was out of town for the duration of this study?
4. New Orleans is a dark spot in an otherwise bright state. I wonder what they possibly have to be frustrated about.
Further studies: I would love to see specific profanities broken out. Where does “fuck” beat “shit,” or “cocksucker” beat “motherfucker?” The world needs to know these things! You could map “wicked” and get yourself a big bright map with one pulsing dark spot in the bay state. Actually, with this methodology, you could map all kinds of fun linguistic trends. Pop vs. Soda, the prevalence of “y’all,” Kardashian-mentions. Could be fun!
Related Posts: How bad does a movie have to be to get good again? Mapping case studies.
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You know what a brilliant idea this is, right? Sheer wickedness and socio-linguists scholars will thank you in the future. Am am surveying the use of swear words, curses and insults in ancient India and your swear-tweeto-meter gives me ideas. Thank you.