Author: bkatarz

This past Friday, April 19^th, was the premiere of the finale of season 16 of the hit reality competition television show RuPaul’s Drag Race. The show features drag queens from across the United States competing against one another for a grand prize of $200,000 and the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar. This year, queens Plane Jane, Sapphira Cristál, and Nymphia Wind were the top three of the competition who made it to the finale to compete for the crown. With any television show finale, fans took to social media to talk about the happenings and results of the night.

From last Thursday, April 18^th, to the time of writing this, #DragRace has been used almost 175 thousand times and these posts have reached almost 600 million social media users primarily on X. Further, the bulk of these conversation took place on Friday the 19^th and Saturday the 20^th with a steep drop off in volume on Sunday the 21^st. In terms of sentiment, posts that used #DragRace were rated at about 85% positive and 15% negative. This overwhelmingly positive response is largely thanks to the appearance from last year’s winner, Sasha Colby, and the fact that the winner of this season, Nymphia Wind, is the first Asian winner of the show in 13 years.

Most of the posts that were deemed “negative” had to do with the fact that the respective social media users’ choice of winner, mostly Sapphira Cristál, did not win.

Some top themes of discussion included hashtags that read #Team[respective finalist’s name here] which is where fans could show their support for their choice for winner. #TeamNymphia was the most used at over 10 thousand postss followed by #TeamSapphira at over 6 thousand posts and finally #TeamPlaneJane at over 1 thousand posts. 

Most countries around the world were contributing to the discourse around finale night, but the United States was far and away the most vocal with almost 30 thousand mentions due to the fact that this was the finale for the American Drag Race franchise. Additionally, men were twice as contributive to the conversations as women were. 

Lastly, when looking at influencers who participated in the Drag Race discourse, some notable names include Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan (Nymphia’s home country), Kylie Minogue, the singer whose song Padam Padam was used for the final lip sync of the night, and Morphine Love Dion, the queen who took 5^th place this season.

In the end, with the season over and Nymphia Wind being crowned America’s Nex Drag Superstar fans of the show can now turn their attention to the season 16 queens’ next creative endeavors while also getting ready for RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 9 which was officially announced during the finale. However, fans are not likely to forget this finale anytime soon as Nymphia has only started to make history with her reign in just a few short days.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

This past Thursday, April 11^th, social media erupted in chatter after the news of the latest celebrity death. Typically, social media users take to posting about how sad they are after a celebrity death or sharing their favorite memories of recently deceased celebrity. However, the conversations about this specific celebrity were a little different than the normal discourse. The celebrity that passed last week was the infamous Orenthal James “O. J.” Simpson. The former pro football, actor, and alleged murderer died of complications associated with prostate cancer at the age of 76. With the death of a figure as controversial as O. J., social media was exploding with discussions about him, his death, and, again, whether or not he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown.

From the morning of April 11^th to the time of writing this, across all social media platforms O.J. has been mentioned by social media users over 600 thousand times and these posts have been seen 9.5 billion times. This large volume of posts and reach is to be expected when any big celebrity dies, especially one as controversial as O. J. As of Sunday, April 14^th, however, the conversations have largely died down to only a few thousand posts. X was the most significant platform where these discussions took place, and the sentiment split of the discourse was exceptionally lopsided. About 23% of the posts were rated as being positive while 77% were rated as negative. This does make sense though as death can be rated as a negative topic on top of the fact that many people disliked O. J. Some of the top themes of the discussions about O. J. included rest, Heaven, and killer. However, as nice as “rest” and “Heaven” sound, many social media users were quick to make jokes about the polarizing figure.

Demographically speaking, twice as many men than women were posting about O. J., and conversations were exclusively had by American social media users. The top influencers in the conversation have mainly included new outlets such as The New York Times, ABC News, and TMZ, all of which helped spread the news of O. J.’s passing. 

Aside from the negative and joking aspects of these conversations, many of these metrics are common parts of discussions from when celebrities die, but because O. J. possibly killed his ex-wife, ran from the police, and then joked about being a killer for years afterwards social media users preferred to get the last laugh as opposed to celebrate his life. When the next controversial celebrity dies, it can be expected that the posts about their death will look similarly to the post about O. J, from the past few days. 

Author: Ben Katarzynski

On Monday, April 8^th, a total solar eclipse occurred with its path of totality crossing a large section of the North American continent. This was the second total solar eclipse that was visible in North America this century after the one in 2017. As this is such a rare occurrence where areas in the path of totality experience full darkness in the middle of the day, people are obviously going to talk about this unique phenomenon. Social media users did just that as #Eclipse2024 was one of the top trending topics on X this past Monday.

#Eclipse2024 was used over 100 thousand times and had a reach of almost 2 billion users on Monday alone, though the vast majority of these conversations took place on X. The sentiment of these discussions was overwhelmingly positive at about 85% positive and 15% negative. This makes sense as for many people this was their first time experiencing a total solar eclipse. Looking at the volume trend of the hashtag use across the day, there was a steady increase of the use of the hashtag which then exponentially increased the closer it got to the time of totality around 3:00 PM. Use of the hashtag then significantly dropped off for the rest of the day. Some of the top themes associated with the hashtag included totality, which referenced the fact that the moon fully covered the sun, clouds, which referred to the fact that many areas in the path of totality had some form of cloud coverage, and glasses, which referenced the special glasses needed to view the eclipse as it happened.

#Eplipse2024 was also far and away the most used eclipse hashtag where it was used tens of thousands of more times than other related hashtags. Additionally, the most used emojis in posts that used the hashtag were, of course, ones that depicted the sun, moon, and sunglasses. Also, as the eclipse happened primarily over the United States, the hashtag was exclusively used by American users on X. One other interesting point of demographic information is the fact that men used the hashtag almost twice as much as women. Looking at the conversation stream, it appears that organizational accounts, like NOAA Satellites and Texas Football, seem to be classified as “male.” This is further reflected in the influencers who participated in conversations about the eclipse. Some of the top influencers included Jimmy Fallon, Ryan Seacrest, and Elmo.

This story shows that no matter how fractured and divided the internet and social media can get with all the discourse that goes on, a very rare event like this can bring everyone together to talk about it for a moment. Things like politics and celebrity events can be divisive, but everyone can take some time to stop and look at the sun (with the proper eyewear).

Author: Ben Katarzynski

On April 1^st, the day known as April Fools’ Day where many people commit to pulling pranks, making jokes, and other hijinks, many people took pause when they logged in The New York Times website to play the daily Connections game. The game which is premised around grouping 16 seemingly unrelated words into four groups of four based on some unifying theme has been a hit online for some time now thanks to the success of other word games like The New York Time’s Wordle. On Monday, however, fans of the game were thrown for a loop when they opened the day’s Connections puzzle to see 16 emojis on the board instead of the usual 16 words. This change in format, likely linked to April Fool’s Day, got users on social media talking about what the game editors had done.

Across the day of April 1^st “Connections” was mentioned 22.67 thousand times and these posts reached over 117 million social media users across all platforms, though X was far and away the most used platform for these conversations. Throughout the day there were five significant peaks in discussion at 1:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 6 PM which are also typical times when people like to fit the puzzle into their daily routines. As more and more opened this surprise from the editors they took to social media to share their feelings. While this was a large shake up to the typical format, the sentiment of the Connections related posts was split at about 71% positive and 29% negative. Seemingly more people enjoyed this change than not. 

Some of the top themes and subthemes of these conversations include “opening up connections,” “Connections for April Fools’ Day is evil, and “hell.” While these do seem to skew negatively, as X users like to do, users took to making jokes about one of the latest trending topics.

The most frequently used emoji when discussing the day’s Connections was the small smile emoji which is often associated with the concept of “smiling through the pain” or saying things are “fine” when they are not, in fact, fine. Further, these conversations were exclusively held between social media users in the United States which makes sense as the puzzle is hosted by and American news outlet. Additionally, the users discussing the Connections were split about evenly gender wise with a slight skew towards women being more verbal. Lastly, according to Sprinklr’s data, those that can be identified as advocates, detractors, and prolific users for this conversation are all small everyday accounts, and the influencers are mainly news related accounts. Overall, this shows that not every topic discussed on social media needs to be a big headline news story picked up by countless influencers and the like online. Often times trending topics can just be by the average social media user and for the average social media user. The occasional news outlet may chime in, but the bulk of the discussion can be credited to the everyday people who use social media to be social and talk about the everyday things that happen in their lives.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

Season 46 of Survivor premiered on February 28^th. Now, four episodes into the season, conversations about the show are becoming plentiful online. In total, #Survivor46 has been used over 73 thousand times and reached over 184 million users since premiere day. Obviously, conversations using #Survivor46 peak on Wednesdays, the days episodes air, but each episode has generated a different amount of conversation. The premiere day had over 10 thousand mentions, the subsequent two Wednesdays had a little over seven and six thousand mentions respectively, while the most recent episode had a significant spike with over 20 thousand mentions. That being said, there is clearly much to talk about with this new season despite it just starting. 

Some of the top themes of the discussion include Jelinsky, Jess, and Venus who are all contestants on this current season. Jelinsky was eliminated in episode one, Jess was eliminated in episode two, but Venus is still in the running and has been a dynamic character across these first four episodes.

Looking further at the metrics surrounding these conversations, the majority of these discussions have taken place on X. Further, the users participating in these discussions are one third women and two thirds men. Additionally, the United States is far and away the most central place that these online discussions have taken place in. However, the second most represented country in these conversations has been India which is likely due to the fact that one of the most represented contestants on this season in these first four episodes has been Bhanu Gopal, an Indian native. Bhanu also contributed to the spike in conversation during the fourth episode as he was the main character across the edit and eventually eliminated after a significant breakdown.

Despite this showing Bhanu had, overall Survivor 46 has so far been discussed at a split of almost 59% positively and 41% negatively. In fact, most of the negative mentions of this season have to do with how social media users perceive the treatment of the women on the cast by the other contestants. 

On the other hand, many of the contestants this season have been well received as the characters that they have been presented as and that is what is being celebrated in the positive mentions of the show.

Some top influencers in these conversations over the past four weeks include Janelle Pierzina, a realty television star most known for her appearances on Big Brother and The Traitors, Eliza Orlins, and Hai Giang, both of whom are former Survivor contestants. This is a common finding when looking at conversations surrounding reality television shows as these people are figureheads for these topics.

As the competition for the one million dollars continues on, one thing is certain: social media users are going to continue to talk about these contestants as they continue to battle one another each Wednesday night this spring. Who will be the next big theme across these conversations? Only time will tell.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

What do Vincent van Gogh, Friends, and ice cream all have in common? They all have some form of immersive experience modeled after them to capitalize on the craze of taking audiences and placing them into their respective worlds, whatever that might look like. Recently, one new immersive experience started make rounds on social media but for all the wrong reasons. In Glasgow, Scotland, a company known as “House of Illuminati” advertised their new immersive experience called “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” an unlicensed event aimed at capitalizing on the Willy Wonka IP. What was advertised as a magical and candy filled experience turned out to be much less according to some attendees on social media, and the immersive experience quickly became a viral meme.

Most social media users have been referring to the event as the “Willy Wonka Experience” which has been mentioned almost 500 thousand times since February 22^nd, just days before the event which took place the weekend of February 24^th. Further, this topic has reached almost 2 billion users across social media with the most prominent platform being X which is where the jokes and memes really took off followed by Reddit which is where the story first started gaining traction on the day of the event. Relevant conversations continued to increase the during the following week and peaked on February 29^th with over 17 thousand mentions. Sprinklr rates the sentiment of these conversations at about 61% negative and 39% positive which makes sense as many users took to speaking on how poorly the experience was executed while simultaneously making fun of it. Top themes of discussion include “AI Art,” which describes how all of the promotional material for the experience was created, “kids with the Krabby Land,” a reference to a joke from SpongeBob SquarePants, and “bad people called the cops Lmao,” which is a line from one viral post that noted the experience was so poorly received that attendees called the police to the scene.

While the “immersive” experience took place in Scotland, the United Kingdom was the second most vocal country in the social media discussions on the topic at just over 31 thousand mentions behind the United States which had just over 71 thousand mentions. American accounts began to circulate more and more pictures from the experience to crack jokes at just how underwhelming it turned out to be as well as mixing it with other recently popular memes.

Influencers in the discussions include some pop culture and news outlet accounts such as Culture Crave and The Guardian as well as other various influencers whose tweets have been sampled above.

What this story shows is that viral moments can come from anywhere. The AI generated advertisements for the experience raised little to no eyebrows across social media prior to the event taking place, but once Redditors began sharing the story and users on X got ahold of it, it blew up to a now canon social media meme. From the sad Oompa Loompa to the AI created villain “The Unknown,” this story is likely to linger in social media users’ minds for years to come simply because it was just so ridiculous and unexpected. 

Author: Ben Katarzynski

On February 13^th TikTok user Reesa Teesa stitched a TikTok that asked, “What’s a [crazy] thing that your ex did to you?” In her stitch she noted how, in 2020, her then boyfriend’s (and now ex-husband) grandmother passed away from Covid only for her to later find out that not only did his grandmother pass in 2008 but he was lying about several other relationships and family members and forging fake documents in the attempt to buy a house. Teesa went on to say that she had “married a pathological liar” and asked the TikTok audience to “Let me know if you want to hear more.” This TikTok received over 4 million views and almost 300 thousand likes and, upon audience requests, prompted Teesa to create a 50-part series documenting the lies her ex-husband told which she titled Who TF Did I Marry? Each part of this series pulled in anywhere from 1 million views per part all the way up to almost 30 million views on one part with an additional several hundred thousand likes per part and 10s of thousands of more comments on top of everything else. TikTok users were hooked and needed to hear more of what Teesa’s ex-husband could possibly lie about. This was a quintessential viral moment on social media. 

Now, it’s important to note that Sprinklr currently does not have the available tools to scrape TikTok data in the way that it can for other platforms such as X. However, after just typing the word “who” into the X search bar, one of the first results at this moment in time is for #whotfdidimarry. After inputting that hashtag into Sprinklr, it’s clear that this story has not been contained to TikTok. From February 13^th up to now, #whotfdidimarry has been used across all the social media platforms that Sprinklr covers over 80 thousand times, and it has reached over 300 million users. These non-TikTok discussions likely come from those who were extra invested in the entire series and took to other platforms to continue the conversations. Further, these conversations, which primarily took place on X, peaked on February 20^th, three days after Teesa posted the 50^th and final part to the series. Some of the main themes associated with the hashtag were “Legion,” the Bible referencing nickname Teesa gave her ex-husband, “proof of funds,” something her ex-husband refused to provide when attempting to purchase a house, and “Legion on the phone every morning,” which became a sort of meme about how her ex-husband faked phone calls in front of her every day. 

In terms of sentiment, the related discussions were split at about 46% positive and 54% negative which could be explained by the fact that Teesa’s story, while very negative in content, spurred lots of jokes and memes based off how crazy the string of events was. It is also no surprise that these conversations were primarily based in the United States as Teesa’s story took place in Atlanta, Georgia. Further, the participants in the conversations skewed more towards women likely due to the fact that many women found solace in the fact that even their worst relationships paled in comparison to the one Teesa found herself in. Finally, looking at the audience members and influencers that Sprinklr identified, there were no clear mainstream accounts participating in the #whotfdidimarry discourse. This story is one that is fully grassroots from an everyday person like Reesa Teesa posting it to normal everyday people talking about it online. This is truly a viral story unlike any other that shows how hot topics such as this one cannot be confined to the bounds of just one social media platform.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

Do you remember Bridgit Mendler? You might know her from her stint on the Disney Channel in roles such as Teddy Duncan in Good Luck Charlie or Olivia in Lemonade Mouth. Or maybe you know her from her music career with songs like Hurricane or Ready or Not. Or maybe you don’t know Bridget Mendler at all, and that’s ok. But let me tell you about the waves she’s making on social media right now. 

After stepping down from her connections to the Disney Channel, Mendler went pretty quiet on social media as focused on pursuing her Doctor of Law degree from Harvard University and PhD from MIT. According to her LinkedIn page, she’ll have completed both degrees later this year, so it is understandable as to why she gave less time to acting, music, and social media in general. This is why when she posted to X in November of 2022, “k sit tight for news,” fans thought she might be returning to the public eye. This post received over 80 thousand likes, almost 5 thousand reposts, and just over 8 thousand quotes. However, Mendler again went quite on social media with only two quote posts until November of 2023 where she wrote beneath the “sit tight,” post, “Friends! Staying on brand with a signature cryptic post from me because I see ur q’s, i’ll tell you this, news is coming (not imminently, give it a few) that I am thoroughly excited to share, though it will not be what you expect… better imo 😉 love you.” This post received 11 thousand likes, almost 1 thousand reposts, and just over 1 thousand quotes. However, the post itself was viewed almost 800 thousand times. Mendler’s X account then went quiet until this past Monday, February 19^th.

Since Monday morning, Mendler has been mentioned on social media over 150 thousand times and these posts have reached over 700 million users across all platforms. You might wonder why someone who has been so wildly inactive on social media is pulling these numbers all of a sudden, but it starts will a post made at 9:01 AM on Monday. User Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) on X posts a link to a story announcing that Mendler has become the CEO of the satellite data company Northwood Space. This post was viewed 2.5 million times, and Mendler herself quoted it saying, “Expect the unexpected!” Mendler’s post was viewed almost 3 million times and received over 20 thousand likes.

In this announcement many users on social media have been amazed at the fact the Mendler makes it seem like she can do it all. 

Further, the sentiment around the discussions of Mendler online have been overwhelmingly positive at almost 96% (specifically 95.87%). Diving further into the demographics of those currently discussing Mendler, the social media users in the discourse are almost 50% more female than they are male and primarily coming from the United States with over 20 thousand mentions. However other significant contributions are coming from Brazil, Sri Lanka, and France with 6.05 thousand mentions, 3.4 thousand mentions, and 3.03 thousand mentions respectively. Some of the biggest influencers in these conversations include large pop culture news accounts such as Pop Crave, Pop Base, and 2000s which have likely helped contribute to the reach of Mendler’s news. However, becoming a CEO was not the only thing Mendler announced on Monday. Riding the high of the support for her new business venture, Mendler made another big post at 11:31 PM saying, “The other news I wanted to share is I’m a mama to a sweet 4yo boy. Started fostering in 2021 adopted near Christmas of 2022. I’m so lucky — being a parent is the biggest gift and most defining experience there is … that’s my news for now folks [yellow heart emoji].” Less than 24 hours later this post has been seen over 8 million times and liked almost 300 thousand times. This, combined with her other news, has Mendler as a hot topic on everyone’s timeline. Sprinklr’s volume trend graph showing a straight line going up with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

While she may not be acting in anything new or making new music anytime soon, one thing is for sure: Mendler is one of kind and shows that you can stay relevant while doing what you care about.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

Ready your torches and outdoor gear because it’s that time of year again! Season 46 of the award-winning competition-based reality television show Survivor is right around the corner, and the cast was just announced last week on February 5^th. For those unfamiliar, Survivor is a reality game show where a group of strangers are stranded on a remote island where they must work together to survive and complete challenges while simultaneously voting each other off the island until one person is left standing to claim the title of Sole Survivor and a one-million-dollar grand prize.

Being mentioned over two thousand times and reaching almost ten million people, the hype for the upcoming season has been overwhelmingly positive at over 80% across all social media platforms. However, X is the platform the houses the majority of the discussion followed far behind by Instagram and other news outlets. With most of the content being generated between the United States and Canada, the two countries that Survivor casts from, the main topics of discussion were the photos of the new cast members and fans’ preseason winner picks. Assessing Sprinklr’s word could feature, the most mentioned contestants from the new cast are 29-year-old salon owner Kenzie Petty and 24-year-old data analyst Venus Vafa. Further, popular emojis that have been included in discussions of the upcoming season include the purple, green, and orange hearts (which are the colors of the tribes the cast is divided into) as well as other emojis that depicts Survivor related imagery such as a fire, a palm tree, and a beach.

Some of the popular winner picks that are appearing in the discussions include 37-year-old software engineer Jessica Chong and 24-year-old actor Tevin Davis.

Compared to season 45 which aired last fall, season 46 has been mentioned more across all social media platforms, but these posts have reach about two million less accounts. However, season 45’s preseason cast announcement was received about 10% more negatively. Some of the top influencers in the discussions across platforms include executive editor for Entertainment Weekly Dalton Ross, former Survivor contestant and reality television podcaster Rob Cesternino, and writer for parade magazine Mike Bloom. 

When it comes to more general audience members, the conversations have been made up of almost twice as many men as compared to women. Further, when looking at the advocates versus the detractor amongst those contributing to the discussions, many users have been classified as both likely do to the fact that many people are not only vocal about the new contestants that they do like but also about the ones that they do not. 

Season 46 of Survivor premiers at 8:00 PM EST on February 28^th, so check back here the first week in March to see just what these people think of the new contestants once they’ve began their fight for the one-million-dollar grand prize.

Author: Ben Katarzynski

Sunday, February 4^th was the day of the 66^th Annual Grammy Awards, a ceremony dedicated to celebrating and honoring the accomplishments of those in the music industry from the year prior. With surprise appearances, album announcements, and more, there was certainly a lot to be discussed on social media. Generally speaking, across all platforms since Sunday morning, the Grammys were mentioned over 3 million times with a reach to over 33 billion users across the world. Obviously, as that far exceeds the world population and accounting for the fact that not everyone uses social media, it can be inferred that many people were interfacing with Grammy related content across more than one of their preferred social media platforms. 

The posts surrounding the Grammys were about 70% positive and 30% which, interestingly enough, falls very close to the same sentiment split regarding posts made during the same time frame about Taylor Swift who won the Album of the Year award and announced her new album coming out later this year, The Tortured Poet’s Department. Taylor also made history by breaking the record for most Album of the Year wins.

Other main topics of discussion connected to the Grammys aside from Taylor Swift included other artists such as Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey. Posts about Miley Cyrus were overwhelming positive sitting at just over 90% as she had many notable moments throughout the ceremony’s broadcast. First, she showed up on the red carpet in a gold mesh dress where she was surprised to see the press using iPhones for photography. Second, she won her first ever Grammy for her hit song Flowers. And third, she performed a rendition of Flowers with several ad libs celebrating her night. 

On the other hand, the sentiment around Lana Del Rey was split about 60% positive and 40% negative as fans were unhappy that she was still unable to win her first Grammy.

Looking into the demographics behind the Grammy discussions, conversations were primarily taking place on X which further featured mostly users from the United States which makes sense as The Grammys are an American awards show. Men and women had near equal voices in the conversations though the women were slightly more vocal. Some of the top influencers in the conversations were news organizations such as CNN, The New York Times, and the pop culture focused account Pop Base. Alongside these users the most frequent hashtags were all Grammy focused such as #Grammys and #Grammys2024, but the most popular non-Grammy hashtag was #TaylorSwift which speaks to the impact that she left on the broadcast.

Other notable moments of conversation from Sunday night included Jay-Z questioning the academy as to why his wife Beyoncé has never won the Album of the Year award which was more negatively (about 53%) than positively and Tracy Chapman’s return to the public spotlight to duet with Luke Combs which was almost completely positively received (almost 93%).

Compared to last year, the Grammys were mentioned about half a million times less and reached about 3 billion less users with a very similar 69% positive 31% negative sentiment split. Looking to next year and the years to come, will Beyoncé ever win Album of the Year? Will Taylor Swift win Album of the Year again? Will Lana Del Rey ever win a Grammy? No matter what happens going forward one thing is certain: people are going to have something to say, and they’re going to say it on social media.

Author: Ben Katarzynski