Monday, February 15, 2010

U.S. Regions via Facebook

I'm completely fascinated by regional idiosyncrasies of ecology and culture. Every time I hear someone comment about how they associate some typical personality with some part of the country, I can't help but pin them down and try to figure out exactly what their impression is and how they came up with it.

Appropriately, Peter Warden created a map of the U.S. based on the connectivity of Facebook friends. He found that friendships in the U.S. form 7 major clusters, which he dubs...

Stayathomia
The Northeast and Midwest, where people die in the town they were born. People mostly are friends with people in their own town and the next one over.

Dixie
Same as above but as a separate cluster (which doesn't include southern Florida). People are very likely to have friends in Atlanta.

Greater Texas
Includes Missouri and the Gulf Coast. People are very likely to have friends in Dallas.

Nomadic West
People are very likely to have friends in all kinds of small and large towns throughout the entire western half of the country.

Mormonia
A little cluster inside the above, located appropriately.

Socalistan
LA is the hub of California, where Californians tend to be friends only with Californians (no surprise here).

Pacifica
People in Seattle apparently never go anywhere besides Seattle.

















h/t: Edible Geography, PSFK

3 comments:

  1. Insightful, and not surprised. I would love the see the next break down level. As a transplant to the SF Bay Area from the Midwest, I need my own classification, lol.
    Matti

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  2. Seattlites do travel, but we always come back. I've visited a lot of places, and I've lived in several parts of the world (I was even born elsewhere), but there's no place better than western Washington. Western Oregon runs a close second. Western British Columbia comes in third.

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