Two sites, two voices: Linguistic differences between facebook status updates and tweets

Abstract

Facebook and Twitter, two of the most popular social networking sites, have different network structures and communication purposes. To examine how their differences affect users' language use, we conducted a comparative analysis on the linguistic pattern of Facebook status updates and tweets. Differences were found in word categories indicating verbal immediacy, emotionality, topic, and colloquialism. Results show that Facebook status updates are more emotional and interpersonal, while tweets are more casual, explicit, and concerned about impression management. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.