Slow Reveal
Notice, Wonder, Connect
What do these maps show?
Both maps show equally strong connectedness from their respective communities to the rest of Alaska (with the exception of Kusilvak, which is more closely connected to Fairbanks than to Juneau). Fairbanks, though, is much more broadly connected to the lower 48 states than Juneau is (the colors are more evenly diffused throughout the US in the Fairbanks map than in the Juneau map.)
Juneau is more closely connected to Hawaii than Fairbanks is. What might account for that? (Perhaps Juneau residents have more money to vacation with? Juneau residents have lived in AK longer and are more desperate for sun? Juneau is cloudier and rainier than Fairbanks and so its residents are more eager to leave? Fairbanks residents from the Air Force Base are more likely to have connections with their families and friends from “home” than with Hawaii.
In the lower 48, Juneau is most closely connected socially with the Northwest corner of the U.S. – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern Nevada and Western Montana. That makes sense because those are the areas of the US that are geographically closest to Alaska so Alaskans would be likely to have friends and other connections there. Juneau’s closest connectivity stops more or less at the Rocky Mountains, with the exception of largish areas of connectivity in some Northern parts of the U.S. which have similar physical environments to Juneau.
Most likely, Fairbanks is more broadly connected throughout the US because of Eielson Air Force Base which accounts for more than 9000 people (2,981 Active Duty, 2,628 family members, 1,682 civilians & contractors, 77 tenant units, and 2,391 retirees), nearly 1/10 of Fairbanks North Star Borough. Military personnel come from and stay connected to all parts of the US. Eielson AFB | Base Overview & Info | MilitaryINSTALLATIONS
Background information
“County equivalents”
The relative size of Alaska compared to the rest of the U.S. is misleading in these graphs (as it is in so many representations of the US). In fact, Alaska is larger than Texas, California and Montana combined.
These maps are set up to compare counties within and across states. However, two states – Alaska and Louisiana – do not have counties. For purposes of comparison, “county-equivalents” are used. In Louisiana, those are “parishes; in Alaska, organized boroughs and census areas are used. At first glance of the maps, it looks as if the county equivalents in Alaska are of comparable size (or even smaller) than counties in many other western US states. In actuality, nine of the geographically largest county or county-equivalents in the U.S. are in Alaska (San Bernardino in CA is #10). County statistics of the United States – Wikipedia The Yukon-Koyukuk census area is the largest county equivalent in the entire U.S. and is slightly larger in size than the state of Montana. All of that means that there’s not as much geographical nuance in this visualization within Alaska as within other states.
In writing the constitution of Alaska, the founders intentionally did not recreate the county government layer of the lower 48 states and decided, instead, to enable residents to choose whether to create organized boroughs – or not. These borough structures continue to evolve. Currently, in Alaska, there are six city-boroughs, 13 organized boroughs, and one unorganized borough. The largest organized borough is the North Slope, which contains 94,000 square miles, enough land so that if it were set off by itself, the North Slope Borough would be the 12th largest state in the nation. The unorganized borough, which accounts for 57% of the land in Alaska, is larger than any other single US state. For the purposes of data collecting and analyzing, the US Census Bureau and the state of Alaska, delineate the unorganized borough into 11 census areas. It is these 30 county equivalents – 19 organized boroughs and 11 census areas – that are used to organize and analyze this data. https://web.archive.org/web/20211105013431/https://www.akhistorycourse.org/governing-alaska/local-government/
What do we know about how representative Facebook data may be?
- The percentage of adults in the US who use Facebook has remained close to 70% since 2016
- Women (77%) are more likely than men (61%) to use Facebook
- Adults over 65 are the least likely (50%) adult age group to use Facebook
- Slightly more than half of teens report using facebook in 2021, down from 71% in 2015
More specifically, how did this study use Facebook data?
- Facebook users who were included were only those who had used Facebook within the past 30 days. (Appendix)
Questions to consider:
- What might be the benefits of having (many) geographically distant Facebook friendships?
- What might be the benefits of having (many) geographically close Facebook friendships?
Below are some additional graphs from this study and some analysis from the New York Times. What do you think?
“Close-knit communities can have their own benefits, like enabling neighbors to rely on one another for economic and social support. But previous research suggests that “weak ties” to people we know less well can be particularly valuable for bringing us information we don’t already have. So people in communities that are more broadly connected may be more likely to hear about a wider range of business or educational opportunities.
The patterns in this Facebook data don’t necessarily mean that limited social networks cause worse economic and health outcomes, or that wide-ranging networks produce better ones. But other researchers say this data will make it possible in future studies to untangle why they’re related.
“This gives us the first way to systematically look at some of those relationships,” said Mark Granovetter, a sociologist at Stanford who has written influential papers on the value of social networks. “They have just scratched the surface here.”” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/09/19/upshot/facebook-county-friendships.html
Visualization Type: Choropleth Map
Data Source: Social Connectedness: Measurement, Determinants, and Effects
Visualization Source: How Connected Is Your Community to Everywhere Else in America?, NYTimes
It can easily be replicated. Go to the NYTimes article and select the community you want to see.
I thought this graph looked cool and I liked the colors. I also thought it was interesting how big of a difference there was from the Fairbanks map to the Juneau map. This graph reminded me of the T-mobile and Verizon ads where they show a graph of the US showing how much internet there is. I wonder if there are more Facebook friends in the north western states because they are closer to Juneau.
I notice that there are more variety plants and fish in Angoon Alaska and there are more land animals like caribou in Kobuk. I wonder why Kobuk and Angoon Alaska were chosen for the two graphs? This relates to my community by showing how from in land towns get food and how ocean towns get their food. A new head line for this graph is surf and turf in Alaska.
I thought this graph looked cool and I liked the colors. I also thought it was interesting how big of a difference there was from the Fairbanks map to the Juneau map. This graph reminded me of the T-mobile and Verizon ads where they show a graph of the US showing how much internet there is. I wonder if there are more Facebook friends in the north western states because they are closer to Juneau.
i think that its cool they brought this up to learn abt it.
I think that Facebook is kinda cringe.
Emmett,
Can you say more about that? Why is Facebook kinda cringe and what does that mean you think about this data? Super interested to hear what you think.
Thanks,
Brenda
I wonder why all the dark blues states are more connected to Alaska than any other states on the map?
why is alaska so blue? jeez.
I think that people seem to have more friends on the left side of the map, I don’t know why though. maybe it is because they are closer or something completely different. Anchorage has friends and is looked like they have less but they are actually more spread out.
i really think the graph should have numbers on the states for we can possibly do percentages
People in Juneau have more friendships in general. People in Juneau also have a lot of connections to people in the pacific northwest. People in Fairbanks have less connections. However that could be a result of less people living in Fairbanks than Juneau. Or, less people have facebook in Fairbanks.
Adele,
Glad that you’re wondering about the why of all of this. One thing I should make clear though is that this graph was showing the likelihood – as a %, not an actual number. So, it won’t matter whether there are more or fewer people in a community, it’ll just matter what % of them are connected. It could be that there’s a smaller % of people connected to facebook than in Juneau and/or that there’s a similar %, but they’re connected differently. Juneau connections are concentrated in the Northwest and there are very few in Eastern US. Fairbanks connections are all over the US. Why might that be? Some people thought maybe there are more college students in Fairbanks and so they’re more widely connected with families and friends all across the US…. There’s also a military base in Fairbanks. How might that change things?
Thanks for writing,
Brenda
I reaaly like this graph because it was very easy to understand and it was very color coordinated all over and it involves Juneua a lot
I wonder why there are random blue dots for Juneau but for Fairbanks it is a lot more spread out throughout the country?
Some of the things I noticed were, the lack of color in some places, more of the blue in areas, and how the northwestern states like Washington were colored darker than states like Iowa
I wonder why there are more Facebook friends in Alaska than other states because Alaska is darker than other states and some states are just white and have less people on Facebook.
Jayce,
Makes you wonder, right? Why are people in some states so much more likely to use facebook to connect to their world than people in other states? Do you have any ideas? Another thing that’s interesting to think about is what might be the impact of those fewer friendships. Are people who are more broadly connected via facebook more likely to have broader exposure to more ideas and opportunities? (This study that created these graphs did lots of research about that as well and said that there were correlations between how widely connected people are in Facebook and how much education they have or how much money they make!!!! They didn’t differentiate between Alaska and other states. I’d be super curious to see.). This link should get you to some of the other results, if you’re interested. https://juneaustem.org/wgoitag-social-connectedness-in-america-prototype/#comment-210
I really like the blue and green colors. I noticed that the farther away the states are, the less dots there are. Which means that not a lot of people from Alaska communicate with people on the other side of the lower 48.
I wonder why we have to learn about maps.
Haley,
That’s a big wonder. Do you have any thoughts about why?
I’m guessing that you’re not so interested in maps and graphs, is that right?
What do you most like to learn about and from? Books? People talking? Videos? Pictures? Reading on your own? With others? Making and doing?
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Brenda
I think that it is very interesting, yet the data may have become obsolete over time. I think that a new graph would be very interesting to compare to the current ones.
Campbell,
I totally agree! They collected this data in 2016 and it took them 2 years to publish it. Now, 4 years later, we’re looking at it. It’d be super interesting to compare this to new data. I think there are often big issues/arguments about using facebook data and so it’s not so easy to make regular updates. Who does the data belong to? Facebook? The researchers who organized it? The millions of people who use facebook?
Any thoughts?
People are too obsessed with social media. People are wanting friends because they’re lonely, but are stuck being glued to their phones rather than going outside. That’s why Alaska is so dark blue in color, is because we are glued to our phones. (is this a joke)
My question is, if social connectedness refers to social media usage, or just how people feel connected to their community?
Maggie,
I love this question and all the related questions that it brings up.
Here are some of my thoughts: this data isn’t necessarily saying that people are stuck on facebook connections all the time, it’s showing who they’re connecting with – as a % – when they are doing facebook.
It’d be super interesting to find out how facebook connections are similar to or different from other social media connections and whether there’s any correlation between how many hours you spend on your phone and how widely connected you are.
Another thing to think about is how much are we dependent on what data we can get? These researchers were able to get facebook data and study what it correlated with. What data is out there that we could use to find out about non-digital connections within our physical communities? How could we find out how connected people feel to their community?
Do you have any ideas for how you’d research how connected you and your classmates, friends, and family are to each other and the rest of Juneau?
I’m super curious to hear your thoughts and, if you were interested, to talk with Ms. Strumfeld about how we could do some research.
i understand its pretty easy to understand
People in Fairbanks have more facebook connections to people around the U.S.. There’s mostly green and not as much blue and white. People in Juneau mostly have connections to the people in the top left of the lower forty eights and less people from the rest of the U.S.. I think it might be because Fairbanks is bigger so more people from different places go to Fairbanks and Juneau is smaller so there aren’t as many people from different places. Also, it could be because more people go to U.A.F. in Fairbanks than U.A.S. in Juneau.
It looks like the closer someone is to the county you selected the more likely you are to be friends with someone on Facebook. Before looking at the zoomed in version of Alaska I thought the counties were cities, so it was helpful to see that.
Maybe the reason for Fairbanks having more Facebook friends is because its more popular and known by more people then Juneau is.
For some reason I had no idea Alaska was so big! I looked at a map and didn’t realise that Alaska covers half of the united states. I’m not sure if Google Maps is accurate- but I’d rather not question that right now. I wonder if part of the reason Juneau is more connected is because we’re the capital of Alaska?
I wonder why Alaska has the most like hood of friendship and we all have to get a plane or boat to see each other.
Then the other states that don’t have that much like hood of friendship and they don’t have to take a boat or plane to see someone in there state, and they still have less.
Kate,
That’s such an interesting way of thinking about friendship and who values it. If you look at slide 13 here, it shows which parts of the US are most likely to have most of their friendships very close to home. You can see that parts of Appalachia (Kentucky, West Virgina) are very light because their (facebook) friendships are NOT spread out. In contrast, Alaska is very dark because its facebook friendships ARE more spread out.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aqdgUUkhRaGRWgOu6yQ52xAdSsILteFHM2hIO8hy7TI/edit#slide=id.p
Maybe because traveling is so complicated here, we work harder to keep friendships up with the rest of the state/country through Facebook?
I used to live in New York City for several years. NYC is split up into 5 boroughs (you have to cross a river to get to most of them, but there are roads and subways and buses and it’s VERY easy and very close). There were people who lived their entire lives in one borough (say, at the outer edges of Brooklyn) and never went into Manhattan. That always amazed me. I was new to NYC and wanted to explore all of it. They grew up there and didn’t see any reason to explore. Go figure.
When comparing The City and Borough of Juneau and Fairbanks North Star Borough there are obvious differences all across America. The spread of likelihood of Facebook friends for Juneau is mostly in Alaska, Hawaii, and the northwest contiguous US. While other areas are nearly all white or green with a few exceptions. Fairbanks however has lots of density in Alaska but is distributed pretty equally across the rest of the states, with a slight inclination towards the western bit of the US-Canadian border. As well as this Fairbanks has more outliers, with random dark blue counties being scattered across the Deep South and the Great Plains. I think the reason these Juneau’s and Fairbank’s friends are mostly geographically close is because they are Facebook friends from being into similar interests or having the same problems. For example, both Alaska and Washington have great hiking and skiing is popular in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington. All states that Juneau and Fairbanks are very friendly with. However, Alaskans are not very similar to people from, for example, Florida or Alabama. One piece against my theory however is that Hawaii is blue for Juneau and Fairbanks. I cannot think of why but the reason must be interesting.
Amelia,
I love the detail here! I’m wondering if with Alaska it’s that idea of “opposites attract”? Alaskans are thrilled to connect with the opposite of what they love about their home (warmth)???
Hello, Im from Ms. Strumfelds class. I noticed that in Juneau people had a better probability to be friends with someone if they lived in Washington or any of the northwest states. In Fairbanks however, they had a more widespread but less of a connection to the rest of the states. Fairbanks is also less likely to be friends with someone in Hawaii but is more likely to be friends with someone in the north or east. Juneau also had more probability to be friends with people in the west and towards the pacific coast. I wonder why the two are so different and why Fairbanks has fewer connections. Also, why does Juneau have more connections in western America? Is the population in Fairbanks bigger or do they use other social media platforms? I think that people like to have friends from Hawaii in Juneau more than they do in Fairbanks because of the rainy weather here so we need some sun. Fairbanks gets very warm in the summer while here we have vague 70s temperatures. Also I think that why Fairbanks has more diversity between states is because of the university there where they get students from all over.
Kaycee,
Great detail – and you answered lots of your own questions. That’s awesome. One other difference between Juneau and Fairbanks – there’s a big military base in Fairbanks. Soldiers who are based there come from all over the US and then move on to other bases all over the rest of the US. I think that’s a big piece of the difference.
I notice that both Anchorage and Juneau have most of their connections in the Northwest of The United States. Juneau has more and darker blue in the Northwest while almost entirely white when you go farther East. Anchorage has lighter and less blue in the Northwest corner but a light green practically throughout the whole map.
I noticed that Juneau’s Facebook friends were denser on the west coast, but they had barely any on the east coast while in Fairbanks there was less on the west coast but they had green or just under 10x everywhere in the United States. I wonder if Juneau has more blues because of people in the coast guard moving in and out of Juneau a lot, or maybe people move in and out of Juneau more often. My title for the map was “Facebook Friends Across America”.
Avery,
Great title. :). I’m super curious about the Coast Guard impact. I first thought that most Coast Guard families would connect to the coasts of the US, but then I remembered Coast Guard friends who moved (with the Coast Guard) to St. Louis, Missouri – on the Missouri River. I don’t know if Coast Guard familiies tend to move more within the Western US or across the whole country. Do you have any sense of that?
The social connectedness on Juneau compared to Fairbanks North Star Borough are very different because the states that are closer to Juneau have more connectedness than Fairbanks North Star Borough that is spread out more. I think this is because a lot of people from Juneau move closer to the state than people from Fairbanks.
I think its really cool that the west cost is so popular
i like the color and the things for it but i don’t know what it really means
I noticed that the bigger the towns got the lighter the shade. I think the reason for that is because the bigger the towns get the more populated lowering the possibility that you will make more friends.
are all of these up to date?
bob ross
Chase,
That’s an important question! 2016 is the date the data was collected. These graphs were published in 2018. What changes do you think there might be since then?
I think Juneau is just more lonely that’s why it has more friends in different parts of the world
i wonder why is alaska mostly blue
i noticed that the closer that you are the place the darker you will be.
I like how the graphs show the social connection. Its very unique and Ive never seen a graph showing data like that.
i wonder why is alaska mostly blue
The color scheme was a very interesting choice, I understand how the highest percentage was blue but the additional green tinted colors were interesting choice. The zoomed in version of Alaska was very helpful in understanding what actually qualifies as a “county” in Alaska.
The Blue colors I totally understand using, however the green colors I think are pretty random. But at the same time they are really helpful for these types of graphs, the green helps (me at least) to differentiate between the different counties. However for another type of graph, for example internet usage, would you guys also do a color scheme like blue and green or just a solid color with different tints?
Erik,
thanks for the questions – and for taking the time to add in more. This graph we took from the New York Times. The graph of counties was from wikimedia. I thought it was just a coincidence that they both chose to use similar colors for those graphs — but maybe it’s not??? Maybe graphic designers have found out something about those particular colors and shades? I’m thinking about asking Ms. Rautiainen downstairs at DHMS about that because she’s a graphic designer. Do you know her? If you see her, ask her and let me know. If I find out, I’ll let you know!