Christmas Concert, teething, Stats, and voting. Yep.

Jake and I are in a choir that will be performing at the Civic Center on December 22, 2012. Well, I am singing, Jake is playing. It's looking to be pretty rad. 300 member choir, full orchestra, and as of right now, admission is free. I'm not sure how ticket distribution will work just yet, but I'll let you know when they're available. You'll want to be there. Mark your calendars. And while finding me might be like playing Where's Waldo, Jake is solo with the choir on Go Where I Send Thee. He played it tonight at rehearsal, and it was fantastic.

When I went to pick Magnolia up from the kind volunteers who were watching the children during rehearsal, I thought she felt a little warm. We got home, I took her temperature. 102.4. I'm pretty sure it's a teething issue. She was "teething" for about four months before her first tooth came through. For the last two months or so, she's been dropping hints that her two-year-old molars are trying to make an appearance. I think this is the real deal. Bless her sweet little baby heart. 

Because I think this is interesting, and I might be the only one, I present to you...

Statistics [sort of]

While on facebook the other day, a little blurb popped up about my friends who just liked Mitt Romney. I went to his page, and found that 97 of my friends like Mitt. I went over to Barack Obama's page, and found out that Mitt has an edge among my fb friends who openly support a candidate, as only 74 of my friends like Barack. Then I looked at how many people overall like Barack on fb: 28,666,630. Mitt: 6,989,525 (Barack's number makes me laugh a little bit. I'm sure there are already several conspiracies from some super religious right folk who think the thousands bracket is a sign.) 2,087,893 are talking about Mitt. 1,961, 557 about Barack. 

Then I wanted to see if there was a correlation between my fb friends of the voting population at large. And this is where the [sort of] of statistics comes in. 171 of my friends openly support a candidate, which amounts to about 19% of my friends. When compared to the percentage of the voting-age population, I was relieved to find that my fb peeps were seriously under-representin' as the average voter turnout in a presidential election year is somewhere around the mid-50% range. And then I was like, "Uh-buh! Where are the other almost 50%?" At any rate, I determined that there were a lot of variables (is this the right term?) in my fb friends that are not represented in the voting population. Like, I'm Mormon. I have a lot of Mormon fb peeps. Not only is Mitt the Republican candidate, and people in the Mormon church generally hang out on the right in politics, but he's also Mormon. 

What's that? You haven't heard that Mitt Romney is Mormon? He is. Big whoop. ;)

Also, not all of my friends are voting-age, though that number is very few. And just about every member of my family is conservative (but most of them are also Mormon, so I'm not quite sure if that should count as a separate variable), and I'm friends with a lot of my family on fb. Hmmm, except for the family members who have de-friended me because I'm not quite conservative enough for them. I digress. What I've found is that the number of those who like Mitt vs. those who like Barack is not an accurate representation of the voting population at large because I am Mormon, Mitt Romney is Mormon, many of my fb friends are Mormon, and Barack Obama is not Mormon.

Are you registered to vote? Go here if you're not so I won't have to say, "Uh-buh!" as much. 


Some more random fb friend tidbits:
14 of the 97 who like Romney are not Mormon, but 5 of those 14 are family.
5 of the 74 who like Obama are Mormon, 3 of the 5 are family.
2 like Obama and Romney and those 2 are Mormon.

8 comments:

  1. Indeed...Jake was pretty awesome tonight...I find it hard to imagine him ever NOT being awesome.

    Go Mitt!

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  2. BrieAnn I love you. But maybe they unfriended you because you insult their intelligence by posting that they are too dumb to think for themselves and not because you are not conservative enough. The way that you wrote this post is pretty insulting to your family members. I really hope you don't think we are all as stupid as you make us sound but sometimes it is hard to tell.

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  3. Most of my family is conservative, most of my family is Mormon, a lot of my facebook friends are Mormon and/or family who are Mormon, and therefore, a majority of my friends on Facebook like Mitt Romney - the more conservative candidate. I'm sorry if you feel insulted, but I think you're making a leap that I didn't bring up, nor was on my mind, that my Mormon family/friends are voting for Romney just because he's Mormon and so are they. That's not the case. I''m sorry if you feel your intelligence is insulted, but it wasn't by me it was by your inference of what you thought I was saying that I didn't say. Many are offended by anything I say (or what they think I say that I'm not saying at all) that doesn't fall exactly in-line with what they say. But here's the kicker, I don't ever respond on fb or otherwise to the things they say that I don't agree with, but no one hesitates to let me know how wrong or offensive I am to them. One thing I'm increasingly more grateful for is that I didn't get the prevelant personality trait that runs through our family that causes one to constantly be on the defensive - making mountains out of molehills, often missing the point because they hear a trigger word that has nothing to do with what's really going on, but sets them off. Why in the world would I make it a point to go about insulting people I love. I don't. It's inferred, and never my intention. In this case, I thought the numbers of friends who like either candidate was interesting. Mhari, I love you, but you are one of the handful of family members who seems to be constantly offended by just about everything I say.

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  4. great statistics BrieAnn! I do not know who I am voting for as of yet...I need to do more research but I agree with both the parties & their stances. I tend to go along with the Democrats more...but there are things I totally agree with the republicans.

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  5. Maggie - There are points on both sides that I like as well (and some I don't like). Jake was telling me about an article he recently read talking about how the end goal of both parties should be that of human dignity (the article was written by a Republican Senator). I thought that was an interesting lens to view both parties through. If human dignity is the hypothetical end goal of each party, then which approach do I like better? It made the answer stand out a bit more to me. Even though I'm quite certain who I'll be voting for on election day, I look forward to seeing how each candidate will lay out his plan for the next for years in the debates.

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  6. And for the record, I know that 4 is spelled four. ;)

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  7. How fun to be in choir! That is one talent I miss using. Enjoy every minute of it!

    As for the whole fb thing, I think maybe those who haven't liked someone might be like me. I keep all that to myself, mostly because I don't want to have to defend it. When it comes to politics, I'm so moderate that it often leaves me confused and frustrated! I hate that you're either this or that. It seems there can never be an in between, but maybe I'm taking it all wrong. Like I said, I always feel confused...

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  8. Larae - I was thinking I needed to look at one more way my fb friends stats might correlate with the voting population at large, and it has to do with what you said about "[keeping] all that to [yourself]." I wonder what percentage of voters actually discuss politics, or would publicly endorse a politician. I think that number might be more in-line with the 19% of my fb friends who "like" a candidate. I couldn't find any "real" stats on that percentage, but it's an important one.

    I know what you mean about not wanting to have to defend what/why you believe, especially if you're not quite sure about it it yourself. Sometimes something just feels right, and that's what you know, but you can't explain it. I know that you know I'm super over constantly facing criticism over any little thing I say (not just about politics!). I think keeping it to myself would be very beneficial at times, but more than being completely silent, I've decided to grow thicker skin. I'm such a political/social issue nerd. I spend way too much time reading about such a large swath of information, I need an outlet. Even with all that ends up floating around in my head, I think I've done a pretty good job at containing myself this election season because I just don't want to deal with all of the diatribe that occurs as a result of me talking about something I find interesting or important.

    ReplyDelete

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