Social Media Is a Juggernaut: Lagged Correlation Analysis Using Ngram Data on “Internet” and “Social Media” with Amplification by the Advent of the “iPhone”

Authors

• William Zywiak, Bryant UniversityFollow
• Gao Niu, Bryant UniversityFollow
• Nicolas Petrell, Bryant University
• Victoria Nichele, Bryant University
• Kirsten Hokeness, Bryant UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Ngram; lagged variance; crypto; microplastics; social media

Publisher

Open Journal of Social Science

Rights Management

Copyright © 2026 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

The amount of new information transmitted per day can be overwhelming. The data available through Ngram Viewer allows statistical examination to determine the most salient topics, as well as lagged correlation and lagged variance to support possible causal connections between concepts. Using this database, we determined that COVID, crypto, microplastics, and especially social media are important topics of the last few years. We also present results that suggest the development of the internet and the iPhone fueled the prominence of social media, and the access of the iPhone also increased access to the internet.