By Sarah Han
Reddit user Niehaus created a modified script to compile the most used words in 2013 (ones that were used at least 89 times or more) on the subreddits of all 50 states and major cities. Articles like "the" and "a," as well as numbers and other common words like "and" and "I'm" were removed. Niehaus visualized them into word cloud maps, breaking them down by the 100, 200, and 300 most popular terms in those particular areas.
True, Reddit is its own microcosm, but the results for the /r/BayArea reveal a lot about what happened in the Bay Area in 2013, and what people were talking about, online and offline. Not surprisingly, the first of 1,003 most expressed words was "BART" (written 3200 times; "train," "union," and "pay" followed closely at spots #6-9). "SF" was the fifth on the list (1660 times) and Oakland came in tenth (1421). Other obvious Bay Area-related terms that made the list included "bike," "housing," "cost," "tech," "bridge," "transit," but surprisingly "gentrification," and as noted by other redditors, "hella" and "techie" were missing.
In the image above, you'll see the 100 most used words on /r/BayArea, and below are the 200 most used words:
And here are the 300 most used words:
See the whole list of 1,003 most words on /r/BayArea here.