There is a website that graphs the usage of words used in the New York Times from 1970 to 2017:
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — History
unex — 6 years ago(June 02, 2019 02:40 AM)
There is a website that graphs the usage of words used in the New York Times from 1970 to 2017:
https://media-analytics.op-bit.nz/
I thought the graphs of yesterday, today, and tomorrow were interesting.
Peaked in 1974. Used 39,139 times; ranked 20. In 2007 it was used 10,892 times and ranked 118. Then in 2008 it was used 3,157 times and ranked 1,765. It is almost like they told their staff to stop using it so much. I am curious about the rather steep decline from the peak as well.
Also peaked in 1974. Used 56,370 times and ranked 9. In 2003 it was used 39,606 times and ranked 21. Then in 2004 it suffered a not as large drop as "yesterday" but still odd: used 16,811 times and ranked 137. Slight recovery a few years later but back down. This one has a much more gradual decline from the peak.
Again a peak in 1974. Used 8,732 times and ranked 349. What is really odd about this graph is that it drops from its mid to late 70s high down to a pretty steady level and then grows to what looks like a 60s norm and then in 2005 crashes again to the 80s level, but in 2007 even further. This one looks like a kind of square function. I cannot imagine the explanation for it. You can almost line it up with some of the editors but not quite.
Note: the data for 1980 is a duplicate of the 1979 data so those years always have identical numbers. -
unex — 6 years ago(June 02, 2019 03:04 AM)
I think it shows the things that were important at certain times and how they ebbed and flowed. You can see the growth of the internet or the rise of China or the decline of the VCR in the public consciousness, interesting things like that.
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Lilith — 6 years ago(June 03, 2019 03:31 PM)
I think it's because back in the 1970's, people relied on news reporters to inform them what had happened (perhaps overnight or overseas) "yesterday".
As the internet became more prevalent, people were able to check on their own.
In today's culture and the advancement of things like twitter, we can personally connect with people in real time with regards to what's happened. We already know what happened yesterday, we know immediately what's happening today, and we're getting briefed on what's expected to happen tomorrow.
"Your emotional state is not my responsibility." – Warren Smith -
unex — 6 years ago(June 02, 2019 06:14 AM)
I checked how many articles were published on 1 January 1974 versus 1 January 2010 as a kind of crappy way to check if maybe the disparity is due to the number of articles published, assuming the articles are roughly the same average length. I came up with 204 articles published on 1 January 1974 and 92 articles published on 1 January 2010. So we expect twice as many but instead we get 25 times. I could already tell any ratio for "yesterday" would not hold for other words but went ahead. I cannot find any data on the size of New York Times articles over the years. This remains an open question.
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