Zoe Fox2013-03-29 20:46:38 UTCIf you thought you were seeing all your Facebook friends swap their photos to red equality signs Tuesday, you were right. Facebook reported a 120% increase in profile picture swaps, as compared to an average day.
According to a post from Facebook data scientist Eytan Bakshy, 2.7 million more users swapped their photos Tuesday, March 26, than on the previous Tuesday, due to the viral marriage equality Facebook campaign started by the Human Rights Campaign.
The HRC kicked off its call to action Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. EDT, in anticipation of the two gay marriage cases argued before the Supreme Court Tuesday and Wednesday.
Facebook dug into the trend to evaluate just how many U.S. users changed their photos. The following charts show the usual profile picture changing habits of users (above) and the increase in the average number of changes (below). Facebook confirmed that the increase began when the HRC shared its call to action, which is noted on the graph with a dotted line.
Facebook also looked into who were the power profile picture-swappers. Comparing changes March 26 (in red) with the previous Tuesday (in black) by user ages, Facebook found the most significant increase among its users closest to age 30, 3.5% of whom changed their profile pictures. Females were slightly more likely than males to change their pictures, with 2.3% of self-reported females making the swap, compared to 2.1% of self-reported males.
Facebook also investigated which counties' users were most likely to change their pictures. In the below map, the darkest red counties showed the most significant changes.
Roughly 6.2% of users in Washtenaw County, Mich., home of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, swapped their photos in response to the HRC's campaign. The top 25 counties were loaded with universities, including the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Indiana University, the University of Iowa, Ohio University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Colorado and the University of Texas.
Urban areas, including San Francisco County, San Mateo County (Silicon Valley) and Washington, D.C., ranked highly, while Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago showed more modest increases.
Image courtesy of Facebook; composite by Mashable
Topics: Facebook, gay rights, marriage equality, Social Good, Supreme Court, U.S., US & World, US & World if(window.pageChanged) window.omni({"channel":"us-world","content_type":"article","top_channel":"us-world","content_source_type":"Internal","content_source_name":"Internal","author_name":"Zoe Fox","age":"0","pub_day":29,"pub_month":3,"pub_year":2013,"pub_date":"03/29/2013","isPostView":true,"post_lead_type":"Default"}); metaData = {"link":[["canonical","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/facebook-marriage-equality-traffic/"],["image_src","http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzI5L2UzL2ZhY2Vib29rcmVkLjM5OTdjLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/0aea9241/30b/facebook-red.jpg"]],"meta_property":[["og:url","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/facebook-marriage-equality-traffic/"],["og:title","Marriage Equality Campaign Causes 120% Increase in Facebook Pic Swaps"],["og:type","article"],["og:site_name","Mashable"],["og:image","http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzI5L2UzL2ZhY2Vib29rcmVkLjM5OTdjLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTcyMHg3MjAjCmUJanBn/0aea9241/30b/facebook-red.jpg"],["og:article:published_time","2013-03-29T20:46:38Z"],["og:article:modified_time","2013-03-29T20:46:47Z"]],"meta_name":[["description","Facebook reported an 120% increase of profile picture swaps than on an average day. "],["keywords",["facebook","us","social-good","gay-rights","supreme-court","uncategorized","us-world","marriage-equality","us-and-world"]],["twitter:title","Marriage Equality Campaign Causes 120% Increase in Facebook Pic Swaps"],["twitter:description","If you thought you were seeing all your Facebook friends swap their photos to red equality signs Tuesday, you were right. Facebook reported a 120% increase in profile picture swaps, as compared to an ..."],["twitter:image","http://rack.0.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzAzLzI5L2UzL2ZhY2Vib29rcmVkLjM5OTdjLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTU2MHg3NTAKZQlqcGc/9dc1987e/30b/facebook-red.jpg"],["twitter:site","@mashable"],["twitter:url","http://mashable.com/2013/03/29/facebook-marriage-equality-traffic/"],["twitter:creator","@mashable"],["twitter:card","photo"],["twitter:image:width","560"],["twitter:image:height","750"]],"short_url":[["short_url","http://on.mash.to/173Dg5A"]]};
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