Try Guys vs.

Twitter:

Inquiry into Parasocial Relationships and Political Opinion

Dannie Annecston

College of Communication, Boston University

EM 747: Trending Insights: Social Data Analysis and Visualization

Dr. Christopher Wells

May 3, 2021
 Annecston 1

My research passion is understanding the influence of parasocial relationships. Since

2007, the YouTube pilot partner program has created an industry for popular channels to make a

living off of their personal video work. Popular creators now have huge followings that have

created online communities. The research question I explore is do YouTuber influence have an

effect on political opinions of followers?

The past year has been an intensive political climate in the United States with multiple

influencers making strong political stances. YouTube’s The Try Guys have made strides over the

past year in mixing in opinions on political agenda with their casual content. This past year, they

produced a video series on voting in the 2020 election and sharing ways to get involved in the

election on social media. Within the past month, statements have been made by each member of

supporting the conversation around anti-Asian hate. A feature length documentary was released

on their channel, a pod-cast episode dedicated to the conversation, personal statements on each

of their social media platforms, and YouTube highlighting Try Guy member Eugene Lee Yang

on YouTube’s official social media accounts. I’m interested to see if this open dialogue has a

connection with political opinion.

Tweet Mentions

With a following of 351.3k on twitter as well as 7.54m subscribers on YouTube, the Try

Guy fan base is the best community to analyze at this time to help answer my research question.

For the past month, I have compiled tweet mentions of the Try Guys. It has compiled a data set

of 15,398 tweets from March 22 till April 22nd. The starting point is to see the dispersity of these

tweets over time:

 Annecston 2

This graph shows the density of tweet mentions over the month of collection. The initial

spike in density indicates an increase in tweet mentions around March 24. This is the same day

that the Try Guys released their full-length documentary titled “We Need To Talk About Anti-

Asian Hate”. The next spike seems to correlate around March 31st, which is Transgender Day of

Remembrance. The Try Guys released a statement in support of the LGBT community and

called for allyship by donating to the Trevor Project. Both these events are related to larger

conversations currently happening within US politics. There has been an increase in media

coverage of anti-Asian attacks and a push in many state governments to pass anti-trans

legislation, which has led to the conversation around human rights being politicalized within bi-
 Annecston 3

partisan party lines. With initial increases of tweet density around political topic points, the next

step is to look deeper into what is being said in the tweets.

Word Frequency

Hoping to find the content of tweet replies have politically charged material, the top 50

used words were drawn from the last month of Try Guy tweets. Some words were cleared out of

the search due to the nature of tweet mentions (i.e., TryGuys, RT, Video Titles, etc.).

The top 50 used words are

represented in the visual above,

indicating a large majority of the

conversation for the past month is

talking Asian hate, which is in relation

to the Try Guy documentary. While

larger words (which indicate they are

used more often as compared to the

smaller words) may be from often

retweets of a Try Guy tweet, a large

majority of the small words that are

not copied from the initial Try Guy

tweet about the documentary dropping. Words such as “conversation”, “untold”, “struggles”,

“learn”, “painful”, and “speaking” are featured in smaller font and indicate that the conversation

from top-level tweets is mirrored in bottom-level tweets. This visual shows the top words from
 Annecston 4

tweet mentions over a time span over a month, but does not show the density of which these

words are used.

The visual above shows the top 10 used words from tweet mentions and the frequency

the words are represented in the tweet data. The initial data set has 15,398 tweets, which this

visual displays the top word, #stopasianhate, is used over 10,500 in tweet mentions. This can

indicate that a majority of the conversation for the past month has been around the documentary.

This can connect with the idea that political opinion could be expressed in these conversations. A
 Annecston 5

huge question that comes to mind with generalizing these conversations though is are these

themes being viewed as positive or negative?

Sentiment Analysis

An initial sentiment analysis was completed using “afinn” to assign a numeric value to

words within the tweet mentions data. Initial results (located in the visual above) indicate that the

tweet mentions valued centered mostly around 0, or slightly skewed toward a negative sentiment.

This could indicate the conversation in the tweet mentions have been negative. This could

potentially mean that political opinion is being expressed, which is leading to conflict within

tweet mentions. But saying the conversation has been negative does not indicate what is being
said. For this, the top and bottom 5 sentiment scoring tweets were drawn from the data set:
Top Tweets
8722 "So I've watched @tryguys video of
how they started their own company and it
inspires me. If they can leave their comfort
zone to create something awesome. Why
can't I? Kudos to you guys. Been a fan for a
long time. More videos and happiness and
love \u2728\U0001f496"
9243 "Help my favorite guys win the
#ShortyAwards for the Best Overall YouTube
Presence! I’m legit obsessed @tryguys and
I’ve loved how much they’ve grown &
continue making hilarious wonderful
content! \U0001f60a
https://t.co/AmkxngFc8r"
15153 "@korndiddy I'm so proud to be a
Patron. @tryguys @EugeneLeeYang
@korndiddy @KeithHabs @nedfulmer are
doing amazing things that really make a
difference. I'm proud every day but I'm
especially proud with important interviews
like with all the wonderful people in this Doc
and your Fauci video"
13911 "I absolutely LOVE how body positive
the @tryguys are. Seeing cis men with larger
areolas or wider hips and lil pudge on the gut
is amazing and affirming for a guy like me. I
just love the try guys in general"
1551 "@EugeneLeeYang @tryguys I just
finished it. I'm so proud of you
@EugeneLeeYang. I'm proud to be a fan, a
patron, a supporter. I will share this with
everyone. I genuinely love you. Thank you for
making this."
Annecston 6
Bottom Tweets
9525 "@YouTube can you please not run
that fucking ad with the owls being tortured
screaming in pain? WTF? It's incredibly
disturbing, heartbreaking, and something I
do not need while trying to enjoy my night
watching @tryguys #canyounot #youtube"
13061 "@EugeneLeeYang @YouTube
@tryguys Hi team @YouTube, pls remove
this video ASAP as its racist & mocks
suicide victims & their family &
connections as survivors of suicide.
https://t.co/5zna3rOh5N\r\n\r\n3:06:
sensitive pics of a victim’s funeral were
shown + lyrics “I wonder why lately man they
all committing suicide”."
9455 "@Current_Events3 @tryguys no the
fuck they arent. dont generalize a whole
race. of course there are some racist asians,
just like how there are racist white people
and racist black people. stop generalizing.
maybe talk about ur future baby w ur gf
instead of crying on twitter."
12485 "We Need To Talk About Anti-Asian
Hate https://t.co/lvabGuEtky via
@YouTube\r\nThank you @tryguys &
@EugeneLeeYang for addressing Racism
head on and calling it out for what it is! Anti-
Asian Hate and racism in all its disgusting
forms must end!!"
9466 "@tryguys Why Anti Asian Racism news
everywhere. Simple.\r\nMost of 2020 was
spent on black people protesting Hate
Crimes. But, they were asking for the
impossible. For Racist Cops to stop killing
 Annecston 7

them with impunity. So we needed a new

hashtag, and the media to bury those noisy
blacks. Cheers"

Results seemed surprising because based on the top mentioned words in the past month, it would

seem that the top negative tweets would focus on the conversation of anti-Asian hate. Yet the

tweet is in response to an advertisement on a video. A few more of the negative tweets could also

be interpreted as positive, for they thank the Try Guys for their video or contributing to the larger

conversation. The top tweets also can be seen as a bit surprising, for they do not all focus on the

conversation of anti-Asian hate. Since these top tweets do not all center around the top

mentioned words in the past month, it leaves room to question how the overall sentiment of

tweets is in relation to time in hopes to see if the tweet mention conversation around anti-Asian

hate gives a sense of being positive or negative.

 Annecston 8

Comparing sentiment to time shows spikes in sentiment of tweets around the day of the

anti-Asian hate documentary being released and the statement of support on Transgender Day of

Remembrance. Based on the video content matter and the supportive statement, this could also

indicate a larger conversation around political beliefs that are being overshadowed due to other

topics being mentioned within tweet mentions. A smaller dataset is needed to see if there are

political intentions being stated.

Political Analysis
Political Words
In order to create a subset of tweet mentions for
American
Anti political analysis, there needs to be a clear definition of what
Racism
Misogyny is considered political. To complete this, the top 200
Trevor Project
Trans frequently used words were analyzed to see if they had
Ally
Transgender political connotations. Based on this, a list of 20 words were
Solidarity
Silence determined to be political along with the words “democrat”,
Oppression
Vaccine “republican”, “Biden”, and “Trump”.
Glblctzn
Covid These words where then used to get a subset of data
USA
History by grouping all the tweets that mentioned any of these words.
Truth
Lie A new word frequency analysis was run to see the frequency
Vote
Asians of the top 10 words were mentioned in this subset:

Based on the frequency of these

words being used in the subset of data,

it can be inferred these tweets indicate

political intention. This could lead to

 Annecston 9

a larger conversation of political opinion. The next step is to see the sentiment in conversations

being had in this subset.

Based on this subset of tweets maybe indicating political intention, a sentiment analysis

was used to give a generalization of the ideas presented in the tweet mentions:

The visual on the left is the initial analysis done with using all tweet mentions for the month

collected. The visual on the right is the results from the sentiment analysis from the political

subset of data. By comparing the results, this indicates that the sentiment in the political tweets is

negative as compared to the positivity presented in the whole of the data. This could possibly

indicate that this political subset of data is having harsh, politically driven tweet mentions. To get

a better understanding of the actual content within the tweet mentions, the top and bottom 5

sentiment scoring tweet were drawn from the subset data set:

Top Tweets Bottom Tweets

[1] "RT @EugeneLeeYang: Please watch, [1] "We Need To Talk About Anti-Asian Hate
share, and join this in-depth conversation https://t.co/lvabGuEtky via

about the complex, often untold story of
the Asian American community, the unique
struggles we face, and how you can help
#StopAsianHate.\r\nSee the full-length
documentary here:
https://t.co/iA23jxAlDW\r\n#TalkAsianHate
@tryguys https://t.co/rhSJ0mZ8Bx"
[2] "@AlohaKatie @EugeneLeeYang
@tryguys solidarity! here if you need
anything ❤"
[3] "@EugeneLeeYang @tryguys I’m
watching it right now! Solidarity from an
Asian-Australian xx"
[4] "RT @tryguys: Today we honor and
stand in solidarity with the transgender
& non-binary community.\r\n\r\nWe
encourage you to visit
https://t.co/MZ3Pm5uBAf to learn more
about how you can be a better ally &
donate to the @trevorproject if you can.
Stand proudly with our trans family today
& everyday. https://t.co/l8LbcpdRpt"
[5] "RT @tryguys: Today we honor and
stand in solidarity with the transgender
& non-binary community.\r\n\r\nWe
encourage you to visit
https://t.co/MZ3Pm5uBAf to learn more
about how you can be a better ally &
donate to the @trevorproject if you can.
Stand proudly with our trans family today
& everyday. https://t.co/l8LbcpdRpt"
Annecston 10
@YouTube\r\nThank you @tryguys &
@EugeneLeeYang for addressing Racism head
on and calling it out for what it is! Anti-Asian
Hate and racism in all its disgusting forms must
end!!"
[2] "@TDEick @EugeneLeeYang @tryguys It is
kind of racism because no one had choose
their families. We should do something about
it because it’s bad to have racism. Also, he
talked about being Muslim so that includes me.
I don’t wanna be treated because of something
that I believe."
[3] "RT @Anum0613: If you have an hour to
spare, please watch this excellent documentary
by @EugeneLeeYang of the @tryguys. Even if
you think you know the history of racism in the
US, specifically anti-Asian racism, there's more
to be learned.
\r\n#StopAsianHate\r\n#StopAAPIHate\r\nhtt
ps://t.co/yuZq7FHykH"
[4] "RT @Anum0613: If you have an hour to
spare, please watch this excellent documentary
by @EugeneLeeYang of the @tryguys. Even if
you think you know the history of racism in the
US, specifically anti-Asian racism, there's more
to be learned.
\r\n#StopAsianHate\r\n#StopAAPIHate\r\nhtt
ps://t.co/yuZq7FHykH"
[5] "If you have an hour to spare, please watch
this excellent documentary by
@EugeneLeeYang of the @tryguys. Even if you
think you know the history of racism in the US,
specifically anti-Asian racism, there's more to
be learned.
\r\n#StopAsianHate\r\n#StopAAPIHate\r\nhtt
ps://t.co/yuZq7FHykH"
 Annecston 11

These tweets do indicate political hot topics mentioned at the beginning of the piece, and indicate

support behind these movements. It’s a bit surprising to not see disagreement with the Try Guy

in these drawn tweets. These tweets also do not state explicit political views or changes in views.

Presidents

In a final effort to see if direct political intention could be mentioned in, another subset of

data was used. In this subset, the only tweet mentions drawn mentioned “Biden” and “Trump”.

Due to the presidential race in 2020, both president names have become related with direct

political opinion. From the initial 15,398 tweets, 6 tweets where found:

President Tweets

[1] "RT @WackyWayneTrain: @KeithHabs @Michaellentz78 @tryguys

When Trump closed travel from and to China, Biden called him a fear-
mongering madman. If Biden was president during Covid many more
lives would have been lost."

[2] "@SusanWojcicki @rkyncl @EugeneLeeYang @tryguys We got Trump

out of office, now it’s time for YouTube’s CEO @SusanWojcicki to step
down! She supports hate and bullying!!! \r\nhttps://t.co/xdlnMDPiBD"

[3] "@SusanWojcicki @rkyncl @EugeneLeeYang @tryguys Sargon of

Akkad was my greatest Mentor. When I harassed people, he taught me
to say \"I was joking\". He hates Feminists, shocker. He voted Trump,
another shock. Watched, studied all alt right Youtubers on how do they
get away with it? AH YES! Youtube ending hate? NO!
SPREADING\U0001f52a\U0001f92c https://t.co/YrjVkqGrZD"

[4] "@EugeneLeeYang @tryguys Yes I agree I fine it exciting to see other

cultures of the world. This used to not be a problem ,if we could get the
Democratic’s out things would be better.Trump was cheated out of being
President. Biden has open gate for the people that hurt our country"

[5] "@EugeneLeeYang @tryguys \"Trump 'seemingly legitimizing' the rise

in hate crimes against Asian Americans, according to a UN
report\"\r\n\r\nhttps://t.co/1w5jVkEyWI"
 Annecston 12

[6] "@EugeneLeeYang @tryguys YOU HAVE NO STRUGGLE! Asians are

racist by nature, you were owned by the French, English and
Spaniards..... Did anybody ask the Asians why they didnt vote for the civil
rights? Or why the majority of them voted for Trump 2020? You made
your bed now sleep in it."

These 6 tweets indicate obvious political intention, from indicating the differences in

presidencies. The do not express a sense of changing political view due to the Try Guy influence.

This dataset is also limited so that it is hard to find a generalized conclusion from the data.

Concluding Thoughts

It is time to recall the initial question of this research: do YouTuber influence have an

effect on political opinions of followers? This is a complex question to answer in terms of this

research. A large majority of these results indicate political bias within the conversations, but

nothing proves that the opinion of the Try Guys has directly affected the tweeters political

opinion. Based on these initial findings, it would indicate social influencers do not have direct

impact on political opinion. Though this may be due to the shortness of the analysis period. To

receive more exact results, it would be best to examine tweet mentions over a longer period of

time.