We all have those Facebook booster — friends with Very Strong Political Opinions they just ca n’t keep to themselves . While the political memes democratic on Facebook pander unashamedly to people who already fit in , sometimes the meme get misrepresented . And mutate . And even co - prefer by the opposite political party .
Facebook ’s data science squad has a fascinating post about the phylogeny of memes on the site . They look at one political meme in special , which you may recall from September 2009 , when Obamacare was first making its way through Congress .
No one should die because they can not yield health care , and no one should go broke because they get sick . If you agree , post this as your status for the eternal sleep of the daytime .
The squad ascertain 121,605 different variants of this meme in 1.14 million position updates in all . Some were just slight wording changes , such as “ the quietus of the day ” ( grim Elvis in the diagram above ) switched to ( “ next 24 hours ” ) .
But things go a little weird , too : zombi seem in the meme , and then Jabba the Hut . As the meme made its way across Facebook , different chance variable took wait in subcultures , like mutant creature adjust to slenderly dissimilar habitats . What ’s most interesting is how they varied across the political spectrum , based on the user ’s self - identified political leanings on Facebook :
Conservatives co - opted the pro - Obamacare meme into a content against government activity and taxes — the exact opposite of the meme ’s original purpose . Sci - fi eccentric person seem to lean liberal . And everybody hates cancer . happy we can at least agree on that .
This all injects another attribute to the discussion of Facebook ’s theatrical role in the polarisation of American government . for sure we are readingeach others ’ status . We ’re even mocking them . But are we have any real discussion , or are we just batting meme back and off ? [ Facebook Data Science ]
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