Study Says: Once You Get Engaged, “I” Totally Gets Replaced By “We” On Twitter
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After following over 900 people who hashtagged their engagement into existence on Twitter by saying “#engaged,” researchers found that basically, they never said “I” on Twitter again.
They stared at those peoples’ Tweets from nine months before they got engaged until 12 months after (some 2 million Tweets, oof), and found that the pronouns “I” and “me” went MIA to the tune of 69 percent, in favor of the more #engaged pronouns “we” and “us”.
They also started using future-tense verbs at a 62 percent higher rate than before getting #engaged, and phrases like “future-in-laws” and “children” started cropping up on a highly regular basis as well.
People began to paint themselves as a couple, rather than as individuals,” says study leader Munmun de Choudhury, a Georgia Tech associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing. “They’re going through a major change in life, and it shows on social media as they adapt to society’s expectations of their marital identity.”
So the next time your friends make fun of you for only ever saying we, we, we, you might want to scan your social media accounts before you get all huffy. They might have evidence.
RELATED: The Higher Your Facebook Usage, the Higher Your Chances of Divorce, So Maybe Put Down That Phone
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