Dr. Ignacio Castro, lead researcher and Lecturer in Data Analytics at Queen Mary University of London, stated: “Our research study shows that the text published by users in poor communities is distinguishable from the text produced in wealthier neighborhoods. Online users material reveals socioeconomic elements: in wealthier areas, there is more crime-sensitive publishing activity, but overall, more positive sentiment in the posts.”
Researchers gathered and analyzed 2.6 million posts from 64,283 communities in the United States and 3,325 areas in the United Kingdom, shared on Nextdoor between November 2020 and September 2021. With 10 million users, the platform enables verified homeowners to share posts on online forums that are committed to their communities.
Homeowners who live in richer neighborhoods are more concerned about crime with the 20% richest communities talking about criminal activity around 1.5 times more compared to the poorest neighborhoods. This occurs even though criminal activity levels are 1.3 times higher in those poorer communities. Individuals who live in rich communities with less inequality talk about crime more than anybody else.
Concerning the type of crimes talked about, non-violent crimes are talked about more than violent criminal activities. A lot of user material patterns are very comparable between the US and the UK, with one significant distinction when it concerns weapons and violent criminal activities, which are talked about more in the US than in the UK for the richer neighborhoods. This is not the case for middle-income areas, as UK citizens tend to publish about this kind of criminal activity more than their US counterparts.
Reference: “Lady and the Tramp Nextdoor: Online Manifestations of Real-World Inequalities in the Nextdoor Social Network” by Waleed Iqbal, Vahid Ghafouri, Gareth Tyson, Guillermo Suarez-Tangil and Ignacio Castro, 2 June 2023, Proceedings of the Seventeenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.
A large-scale study utilizing 2.6 million Nextdoor posts exposes that users online activities can anticipate socioeconomic status, with wealthier neighborhoods showing more positive however crime-sensitive posts. The research study also highlights local differences in criminal offense discussions, with the wealthiest areas in both the US and the UK talking about criminal activity more, even with lower actual criminal activity rates, and discussions in the US more skewed towards weapons and violent criminal offenses.
A research study performed by scientists at the Queen Mary University of London included the analysis of 2.6 million posts on the well-known social networking website, Nextdoor. Surprisingly, they were able to forecast a users earnings accurately, using only the material of their posts. The scientists kept in mind prominent variations in the kind of material posted by homeowners of more wealthy communities compared to those in less upscale areas. This discovery recommends that our general online activities, not just on Nextdoor, may supply insights into our socioeconomic standing, enabling the capacity for user profiling.
Such knowledge of users earnings might pave the method for social networks platforms to recommend material that lines up with a users income level. Additionally, advertisers and e-commerce services could take benefit of this economic profiling to target consumers more efficiently, promoting specific items at differing prices corresponding to the users earnings level.
The findings of the study likewise show that people who live in wealthier communities were most likely to share favorable posts but would talk about crime more, even if the real criminal offense rates are lower than in poorer communities.
Locals who live in richer neighborhoods are more worried about criminal offense with the 20% wealthiest neighborhoods discussing criminal offense approximately 1.5 times more compared to the poorest neighborhoods. People who live in rich communities with less inequality talk about crime more than anyone else.
Relating to the type of criminal activities talked about, non-violent criminal activities are discussed more than violent crimes. Most user content patterns are extremely comparable in between the US and the UK, with one noteworthy difference when it comes to weapons and violent criminal offenses, which are talked about more in the US than in the UK for the richer areas.
