News July 09 03:19 pm

Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke, the tag goes to Twitter

So here’s a wild thing, researches are using Twitter as a viable source of data. Say whaaa? No, but it’s true, this is a thing. This linguistics’ research is using social media to determine themes of where language has migrated around the United States AND the world. When we think of the Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke battle royal within the United States, we usually think of soda dominating the coasts and pop being the contender in places like the Midwest. Well… those stereotypes are true according to the map below.

But what about the WORLD, soft drinks enthusiasts? Huh? Well the research of Edwin Chen has some answers for you. Worldwide “Coke” seems to wear the crown. This is similar to ‘Kleenex’ being a universal name for tissues or “Band-Aids” being a universal name for bandages. I don’t find the results to be all that surprising, but that doesn’t take away from the interest of the whole thing.

Outside of the United States and Canada, “pop” is practically nonexistent; silly North Americans. But seriously, embrace the power of Twitter! I would be eager to see more of these types of experiments in the future. Are there flaws and variables? Of course. Twitter is the world’s conversation though, it’s about time researches did a bit of eavesdropping.