SMART NEWS

Who Needs to Wash Their Twitter Mouth Out? A Map of Profanity on Twitter

Watch the Twitter users of the United States wake up and greet their followers with either a good morning, or something a little less appropriate

Rose Eveleth

Contributor

August 21, 2012

Texas hopes you have a good morning. Image: Vertlab

For people who use Twitter to broadcast their life, a morning tweet can set the tone of the day. So, what will it be? Good morning, or, well, something a little less nice? Vertalab has mapped who’s cheery and who’s cursing in the morning – and how those sentiments change throughout the day.

You can pick a day of the week, and then set the map to play through the hours. As it runs, pockets of profanity rise up and fall again, revealing where Tweeters are the most unhappy, and where they’re the most cheerful. Predictably, “good morning” tends to fade away throughout the day. Cursing, however, goes strong for the full 24 hours.

Of course, many of the hot spots center around cities where there are simply more people Tweeting and thus a higher chance of profanity. But some trends are interesting. Discovery News writes:

Not surprising, good old southern hospitality and midwestern charm shine through, as both regions showed large swaths of “good morning” pleasantries, particularly near Lubbock, Texas and middle Tennessee. Not to cling to stereotypes, New Yorkers also have a strong “good-morning” showing.

But the strangest patterns seem to be in upstate New York, where everyone seems to be dropping f-bombs left and right. What’s going on up there friends? Check out your city, are you nasty or nice?