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Inequality and Web Search Trends

nytimes.com

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Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#2

Post by 001sky »

nb-4l

If this is the #3 search term, the data must be thin. Anyone familiar with this dataset want to chime in? I have a similar camera that is used pretty often and I couldnot even recognize the name without a google search. Did I just get lucky by buying 2x nb-6l ? maybe the nb-4l is really a pain point? Maybe some users of the elph series have real issues with this thing?

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#4

Post by chimeracoder »

001sky wrote: post #2

nb-4l If this is the #3 search term, the data must be thin. Anyone familiar with this dataset want to chime in? I have a similar camera that is used pretty often and I couldnot even recognize the name without a google search. Did I just get lucky by buying 2x nb-6l ? maybe the nb-4l is really a pain point? Maybe some users of the elph series have real issues with this thing?

> If this is the #3 search term, the data must be thin.

I can see why one might think that, but it's actually not necessarily the case.

I'm not sure how they're defining 'highest correlation to our index' (there are a few different ways to interpret that statement), but for example, with a latent Dirichlet allocation[0][1], a word or phrase that is rare but is almost exclusively limited to a given subgroup might still end up being one of the top associations for that group.

Another example using a similar technique: For "The Real Stuff White People Like"[2] we analyzed millions of fairly lengthy profiles, and still the results yield some phrases that you might think are relatively uncommon (though not rare), but are very highly associated with certain groups. We did the same thing for sexual orientation[3], and you can see similar effects there.

One other thing to keep in mind is that search terms are usually a few words, which is much shorter than the typical OkCupid profile.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_dirichlet_allocation

[1] An LDA is only one possible way of analyzing data of this sort, but it's a reasonably common one so it's easy to find other examples for comparison

[2] http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-real-stuff-white-peopl...

[3] http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/gay-sex-vs-straight-sex/

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#5

Post by bcoates » 

  There is evidence of the nation’s cultural divide in the results,
  with “Zoolander” (a 2001 movie starring Ben Stiller) and Vengaboys
  (a Dutch dance-pop band) popular in the easiest places and Kenneth
  Nixon, of the rock band Framing Hanley, popular in the hardest
  places."
Vengaboys, huh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbi0XmGtMw

Are the easiest places to live in the TV advertising markets of Six Flags, by any chance?

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#6

Post by eastbayjake »

> The rise of inequality over the last four decades has created two very different Americas, and life is a lot harder in one of them.

This would be a fascinating appendix for Charles Murray's book Coming Apart. If you liked this article, you might enjoy his quiz about which of these two Americas you are likely to live in: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/white-educated-and-wealt... (Edit: I scored 46 and the description is completely accurate: "A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents")

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#7

Post by jawns »

These results are pretty much exactly what you would expect -- people who are struggling aren't likely to be googling for luxury items -- and I would venture to guess that they would be fairly similar even if The Upshot used only income, or only education level, rather than a blend of six metrics, to determine "hard" and "easy" counties to live in.

What I find especially intriguing are some of the explanations Leonhardt posits, which presume a causal link and attempt to suggest what that cause is. That's part of the reason why I enjoy running Correlated.org -- it's fun to try to guess what the connection might be between two seemingly unrelated things.

But let's remember: Not all correlations entail a causal link. (I prefer that way of putting it over "Correlation does not imply causation," because correlation does imply causation ... it's just that it often wrongly implies it.)

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#9

Post by bluedino »

josephschmoe wrote: post #8

Wilcox, Alabama...8% disability? Is that entire county committing disability fraud? What's going on there?

http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

In Hale County, Alabama, nearly 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability.[2] On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.

Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didn't hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one exchange he had with a man who was on disability but looked healthy.

"Just out of curiosity, what is your disability?" the judge asked from the bench.

"I have high blood pressure," the man said.

"So do I," the judge said. "What else?"

"I have diabetes."

"So do I."

Re: Inequality and Web Search Trends

#10

Post by jedberg »

eastbayjake wrote: post #6

> The rise of inequality over the last four decades has created two very different Americas, and life is a lot harder in one of them. This would be a fascinating appendix for Charles Murray's book Coming Apart . If you liked this article, you might enjoy his quiz about which of these two Americas you are likely to live in: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/white-educated-and-wealt... (Edit: I scored 46 and the desc…

That test was fascinating (especially the explanations). I got a 39. Thanks for sharing that!
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