Facebook uses profile data to show gay marriage support in America

 
The viral ‘red marketing’ campaign that signifies equality for gay-marriage rights, has seen enormous growth over the past week as thousands of users show their support for the cause. Just how much support is now a graph, mapping out the United States decisions.
 
There is no official ruling yet on the two cases regarding same-sex marriage rights, which are currently being heard by the US Supreme Court. During the hearings, a simple red and pink logo with an equal sign has become the signature for gay-rights activists. The simple design is from the ‘Human Rights Campaign’ and odds are everyone with a Facebook has started seeing the image quickly replace their friend’s profile pictures.
 
Now we know more details of the sweeping movement. Facebook stated, “While millions of U.S. Facebook users update their profile photos on a given day, we found that significantly more users — roughly 2.7 million (120%) more, updated their profile photo on Tuesday, March 26 compared to the previous Tuesday”.
 
The large increase isn’t made up entirely of people that changed to the symbol, but the large flux of changes is no coincidence either. Facebook also broke down the support by ages stating, “Those closest to 30 years old showed the greatest increase in updating” adding “on average, roughly 3.5% of 30-year-old Facebook users updated their profiles in response to the events surrounding the HRC campaign”. Not surprisingly, gender did not seem to be a polarizing issue (as gay rights affects both genders) and Facebook only accounted for a “2.3% more” increase in “self-reported female users” who updated their profile on that day.
 
The marketing event is just another example of the sweeping power of social-media, how it can predict and influence our generation. There are several other graphs and breakdowns Facebook has provided to better illustrate the changes and estimations. You can check out the official Facebook page below.
 
more info: facebook