For a change of pace, let’s check out the recent flurry of “ok boomer” replies. #FridayFeeling
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
@ZellaQuixote We began by downloading all tweets from the last ten days containing the text “ok boomer” and then filtered to replies that (other than punctuation/gifs/memes) solely consist of “hey boomer”, yielding 90289 replies from 69154 accounts.
@ZellaQuixote One thing about the “ok boomer” usage: it isn’t botty. We only found five obvious bots lurking among the tens of thousands of accounts with “ok boomer” replies. They are kinda hilarious, though.
@ZellaQuixote A large spike in “ok boomer” replies happened on November 4th. As it turns out, it’s targeted at two specific accounts: talk radio host @BobLonsberry and @realDonaldTrump. Each received thousands of “ok boomer” replies in a few hours. Traffic otherwise has daily rhythm.
@ZellaQuixote @BobLonsberry @realDonaldTrump Who are the most popular recipients of “ok boomer” tweets? In addition to Trump and Lonsberry, @piersmorgan, @JoeBiden, @BernieSanders, @seanhannity, and @pewdiepie (dude looks young for his age or something) are among the most frequent targets.
@ZellaQuixote @BobLonsberry @realDonaldTrump @piersmorgan @JoeBiden @BernieSanders @seanhannity @pewdiepie Wordclouds based on the profiles of both repliers and targets. Based on the terms used, the accounts doing the replying seem to be younger, and the words mostly aren’t political. In contrast, “Trump”, “MAGA”, and “conservative” are used frequently by the target accounts.
@ZellaQuixote @BobLonsberry @realDonaldTrump @piersmorgan @JoeBiden @BernieSanders @seanhannity @pewdiepie Correction: we filtered to replies that consist of "ok boomer", not "hey boomer".
