There’s good reason why much of the country suffers from Vermont Envy. Lots of reasons, actually. The Green Mountain State isn’t just another pretty place. It’s got brains to match.
Do I make this claim because Vermont has the country’s highest number of universities per capita (1 for every 36,000 residents)? I do not. Or because the state ranks first in the nation for writers per capita? Nope. Not even because, as Vermont State Librarian Martha Reid reports, “We have more public libraries per capita than any other state (183). “In FY13,” she adds, “Vermont libraries reported 3.6 million visits!”
But we’re getting warmer. I can say with certainty that we’re not just smarter than the average bear. We’re smarter than all the bears. At least all the bears on Twitter!
That’s right. According to a study just published by the California-based online real estate giant Movoto, Vermont isn’t merely among the smartest states, it is the smartest state. And how did it arrive at that conclusion? It read our tweets.
Seriously. Ours and those written by residents of every other state — more than a half million of the 140-or-less-character communiqués, in fact. And then the company analyzed them to determine the average grade reading level and IQ state by state, using a computer algorithm to score tweets based on factors such as spelling, grammar and word choice. Points presumably were deducted for Twitter pics of users wearing only towels. (Geraldo Rivera may single-handedly have prevented New Jersey from cracking the top five.)
Speaking of which, I give you the five smartest states:
1. Vermont
2. Wyoming
3. Massachusetts
4. Minnesota
5. Maine
And the five where attaching pics of yourself in just a towel is apparently really common:
5. Mississippi
4. Arkansas
3. Alabama
2. South Carolina
1. Louisiana
Those five bringing up the bottom weren’t the only ones who got bad news. The country as a whole came in at just below a fifth-grade reading level. A fact that would be sorry enough if the statistic were arrived at solely through Twitter-based science. But the sad reality is that the Movoto findings closely mirror recent official state education performance statistics. That would be enough to strike the average American dumb if, you know, the average American already wasn’t.
So, congratulations, Vermont. That’s a pretty impressive Twitter profile. According to my calculations, we’ve got about 316 million followers.
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Yeah, as if we did not know this already: i.e., “Vermont’s the Smartest State!”
;->
I’m surprised most of the country comes in at even a 5th grade reading level. Most newspapers (I use teh term loosely) are at 3rd grade, and even those dumbed-down rags appear to be too difficult for he “average”American to read.
I don’t know about me,,but there is some people here that are smart,,,,lol
These five “smartest” states all seem to have at least TWO things in common.
Yeah, right, analyze tweets – that should give reliable results. Vermont isn’t just the smartest state, it’s the WHITEST state (really, you can look it up). Are white people smarter? Absolutely not. So before you accuse me of being racist, consider this: Fewer second language speakers, fewer ethnic slang speakers, and fewer homeless (would YOU want to live on the street when it’s 20 below?). Tweets measure adherence to standard English. Big Deal!
I totally agree being a VTer…….re. race, most people of color do not like cold climates anyway…however we have people of all nationalities living here, Muslims too btw, and they are treated well, live amongst us so called whitest staters….they are treated well, accepted everywhere here, we participate in their holidays, food fests, sports, entertainment, its all really fun, entertaining and educational …..am white, have black, brown, yellow skinned people as friends I enjoy a lot….I really enjoy people of other ethnicities, backgrounds, races. Here in VT we pretty much allow everyone to live their own lives unfettered, as long as they don’t hurt others, we’re not perfect but we strive………….
The smartest people stay away from the twit-wits entirely. What could we expect from a medium that destroys good communication by constraining it to a business model and an I-thing screen? Voltaire joked that he’d have written a shorter letter if he had had more time, but there are limits. One hundred forty characters is like a starvation diet for anything resembling adjectives, adverbs, or proper verb tense. Hmmph.
They forgot AK & Hawaii
Rick, they only used Twitter to get this info, so I’m pretty sure the homeless and people who can’t read and write in English weren’t included…
What’s this “tweeter” stuff yall talkin bout?! I don’t think it’s done gotten here to Alaberbamer yet so these results are rigged!
Someone thinks because Vermont has fewer homeless people, that would affect an analysis of Twitter users? Wow. That person must not be from Vermont.
3 of the top 5 are New England, must have cheated.
Is that a fact?
http://thevpo.org/2015/01/19/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/
And here is proof Vermonters are dumb as posts:
http://thevpo.org/2015/01/19/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/
Yeah, because y’all really know your world history, geography… uh, and Latin, don’t you?
http://thevpo.org/2015/01/19/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished/
right… you are all very clearly educated. particularly in regards to language… English was invented in Vermont, wasn’t it?