No matter what your political leanings may be, there is no denying that we are coming to the end of an era — and Tuesday night’s televised farewell address by President Barack Obama made it official. Canvs, the language analytics company, took a closer look to determine where viewers’ emotions were regarding the big speech.
Out of 2,405,906 tweets captured by Nielsen, Canvs detected 563,713 Emotional Reactions (ERs) surrounding the farewell address, which was simulcast across multiple networks. On average, there were over 1,100 ERs pouring in per minute throughout the duration of the broadcast, with more than 327,000 people joining the conversation on Twitter.
The top emotion from viewers was love, which accounted for 36.1% of ERs, and mostly spiked during the president’s mentions of his family and his friendship with Vice President Joe Biden.
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The way Obama talks about his wife and kids, literally makes my heart swell. I love it.
— bbgirl (@_erinaneko) January 11, 2017
the Obama's are relationship goals!!
— F.R 11/14 (@Freaky_Ryder) January 11, 2017
Joe Biden and Obama are literally the cutest best best friends ever
— YəsənıaSoDopəə♡ (@yesenianicolee) January 11, 2017
Interestingly, “Trump” was mentioned in 22,384 ERs during the broadcast, with love and hate tying for dominance, both accounting for 29.5% of ERs — though in some cases viewers mixed together mentions of presidents past, present and future.
George Bush then Trump. Great Presidents. Shame we wasted 8 years on Obama
— YUNEL ESCOBAR FAN (@Insanesportsfan) January 11, 2017
Ugh I'm gonna miss Obama, Trump and his family are such a disgrace
— Indigo Angell (@youngdirtyhippi) January 11, 2017
Another top emotional expression during the night involved crying/tears, accounting for 7.0% of all ERs, with “Obama” being mentioned in 32.1% and “farewell” referenced in 11.8%.
obama makes me cry of happiness and joy
trump just makes me cry
— ️ (@livelypayne) January 11, 2017
Watch President Obama's farewell speech below.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDyjUIsD-wQ[/embed]
