When it comes to social networks, Instagram is where the world's best food photographers reside, Facebook is where "cool parents" and ad-clicking robots can be found, while Twitter is where the up to the minute super-informed, sophisticated intelligentsia hides. At least according to Twitter. So what did said sophisticated audience find to be the most important and talked about American events of the year? The following infographic from Echelon Insights gives the answer:
The top 10 US stories of 2014 were:
- Ferguson
- Midterms
- Ebola
- Israel
- Iraq
- Russia/Ukraine
- Sterling/Clippers
- Guns
- Obamacare
- Marijuana
What is more interesting is that the top 2 most talked items were defined as such by Liberal Activists, where the topic dearest to Conseratives' hearts, Guns, was only 8th in the combined ranking.
Which begs the question: while the media may or may not have a liberal bias, it does appear that the main talking points in at least media distribution outlet are set by those a liberal bent. Maybe simply because they have far more time to retweet and engage in meaningless Internet debate?
Meaningless internet speculation aside, here is how 2014 progressed through the eyes of Twitter users.
