This is a good point! Someone on Reddit said I can only spot these trends because I'm too online myself, which... fair. It's hard to gauge what's actually trending when only posters are posting, but ultimately I do believe there is salience in repeated themes bubbling up. It's almost qualitative research- it's not about scale, it's about meaning, at least imo.
Yes I think you're spot on about the qualitative research - in my industry (PR) there's often a conflation between scale and legitimacy. But more often the vibes of how something bubbles up are more important.
This is a good point! Someone on Reddit said I can only spot these trends because I'm too online myself, which... fair. It's hard to gauge what's actually trending when only posters are posting, but ultimately I do believe there is salience in repeated themes bubbling up. It's almost qualitative research- it's not about scale, it's about meaning, at least imo.
Yes I think you're spot on about the qualitative research - in my industry (PR) there's often a conflation between scale and legitimacy. But more often the vibes of how something bubbles up are more important.