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The Saddest Map In America
- juan_juarez 14y agoWhat I don't get is the states where it's at a bar. I can understand how it's weird to talk to people in some of those other places but a bar is an explicitly social environment. If people didn't want to talk to others, they'd be drinking at home for far less money. As cliche as it is, "hey, can I buy you a drink" still works as an ice breaker.
- AJ007 14y agoBars per capita -- http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7wbbZeG9jwI/S1uUPYQCImI/AAAAAAAAAF0/WXEuSyB6VbM/s1600/us_bars_groceries_100122.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7wbbZeG9jwI/S1uUPYQCImI/AAAAAAAAAF...
- gojomo 14y ago'Missed connections' isn't just "made eyes but didn't speak", but also "spoke but didn't get to contact details". So in bars, perhaps a failure of persistence/crowds/group-dynamics rather than ice-breaking.
- robotmlg 14y agoIndiana's most cited location for a missed connection is "at home." How does that make sense?
- jordan_clark 14y agoPerhaps a roommate that is in love with the other?
- da02 14y agoI'm hoping they are frugal and have parties with non-family members at their homes. Maybe a barbecue where neighbours invite their friends... and they invite friends of friends...
- LukeShu 14y agoAs someone who lives in Indiana, this is probably it. Big gatherings usually end up with a few people that the host doesn't know (of course, that's true most places).
- DrDreams 14y agobecause all these dipwads who think you can just snorffle through a big list o words and apply it to a map are filling the world with their bullshit.
- libraryatnight 14y agoI read it initially as symbolic - feeling estranged in a relationship, so it feels even at home like ships passing in the night. But, I think the other explanations here are more likely :)
- roc 14y agoDeliveries, solicitors, repair people, friends of neighbors, passers-by out for a walk/jog/ride, etc.
- homosaur 14y agoYeah I was confused by this too. People in Indiana, do you have a lot of strangers over for parties or something?
- zera_holladay 14y agoThe "at home" location is the location of the person when they submitted the missed connection form. For example, my location is "at home" as I type this.
- robotmlg 14y agoNo, it says it's the "location where the missed connection occurred."
- dsschnau 14y agoThat is a depressing depressing map.
- ebbv 14y agoThere's a serious selection bias in this study; it also requires that the person thinks the object of their fascination is likely to check Craigslist. So,... yeah.
- newishuser 14y agoWhy is this sad? Because Walmart is the most cited location? Seems great to me. People are reaching out. Would be more depressing if they just decided to not do anything about it. Plus this only has relevance to craigslist users. Seems like a fun conversation piece but certainly isn't the anything-est anything in America.
- dudurocha 14y agoI think the sad refers to people how tried to find someone through craigslist.
- angersock 14y agoYeah--so much worse than selling their personal info and preferences to advertisers on a dating website or social network. They should feel ashamed. :|
- sliverstorm 14y agoIt is, in some ways, a sign of where we are now most likely to see people we don’t know in various parts of the country. One could say the places listed are sad. "What ever happened to <insert social setting>?". You could take it as evidence that we are becoming less social, and withdrawing into our own shells. It’s also a sign of male loneliness or romance: men seeking to find a possible love-mate outnumber women 86 – 14. How is this not sad?
- Avshalom 14y ago>>It’s also a sign of male loneliness or romance: men seeking to find a possible love-mate outnumber women 86 – 14. >How is this not sad? That's probably more a side effect of socialization that teaches men to take the active role.
- eplanit 14y agoOr, the result of Feminism, which teaches women to take the active role.
- the_watcher 14y agoHow is "the car" Georgia's most common missed connection? Hitchhikers? I can't think of anything else.
- drharris 14y agoAtlanta traffic.
- the_watcher 14y agoIs that seriously it? Like people looking out the window? I spent 4 years in LA traffic and have never heard of that. It's definitely plausible though, now that I think of it.
- drharris 14y agoLived there for a decade, and recall a time that we literally turned off our cars and met random people in the jam. I think it was during the trend of people jumping off of overpasses. There's also the random attractive person that cuts you off, flips the bird, etc. you just can't get out of your mind.
- nitrogen 14y agoI knew a guy who met his wife at a stop light.
- msellout 14y agoI got punched by a guy at a stop light in Atlanta. Practically the same thing. Context: I yelled at him for trying to turn left at the wrong time. He caught up to me a couple lights later, walked down the median and popped me through my open window, then ran away. I hadn't said anything bad, just "I have a green light," but I think he misinterpreted my pointing.
- mynameishere 14y agoPure romance https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=atlanta+traffic+jam https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=atlanta+traffic...
- drharris 14y agoProud to live in South Carolina.
- steauengeglase 14y agoMama said I could find a nice girl at church, so I tried a bigger stretch of holy ground.
- dangrossman 14y agoPennsylvania's "convenience store" label should just say Wawa. That's half the missed connections posts in Philadelphia.
- jdminhbg 14y agoThat would exclude the Sheetz half of the state. Presumably the map combined Wawa, Sheetz, and the odd central PA Unimart into one.
- Evenjos 14y agoNext, we should see a map with the worst traffic. Who funds these studies? Are they really necessary? Especially with the bias towards craigslist users?
- michaelhoffman 14y agoThe study was done by Dorothy Gambrell, who I know better as the author of the Cat and Girl webcomic, and published in Psychology Today, a popular magazine. I doubt there was any funding other than whatever Psychology Today paid her for the piece.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ComputerGuru 14y agoChicago's keeping it classy with "TRAIN".
- jff 14y agoFor Chicago, I'd expect "at the crime scene" to be more common.
- paragonred 14y agoThat's probably Detroit.
- ComputerGuru 14y agoChicago is behind the following in terms of murder/manslaughter per capita: New Orleans, Detroit, Newark, Baltimore, Oakland, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Stockton, Cleveland, Memphis, DC, and Miami (in that order, from most deaths/capita to least) [0]. You were saying? [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_...
- jff 14y agoI was saying Chicago's a hellhole, just like all those other hellholes you listed--it's just that the GP mentioned Chicago particularly.
- clobber 14y agoStaying safe in that suburb somewhere?
- nikatwork 14y agoThe fact that other cities have a worse crime rate does not make Chicago's crime rate okay. Pretty sure it was a joke anyway, for some reason Chicago has replaced Detroit in "you'll get shot" references.
- zalzane 14y agoI never understood the concept of missed connections on craigslist. Honestly, what's the chance of two people meeting each other, forgetting to swap numbers, and then both going onto craigslist to search/post in the missed connections category? It just seems like such an overwhelming statistical improbability that such a missed connection would ever be fulfilled through craigslist, I don't see why anyone would even bother posting.
- Sodaware 14y agoProbably for the same reason people play the lottery. The odds are against you, but the reward is worth that little bit of effort.
- enraged_camel 14y ago>>but the reward is worth that little bit of effort. Is it? I would guess that in the vast majority of cases where the two people actually re-connected, it led to a date or two and that's it.
- philwelch 14y ago"Missed connections" plays to a romantic mindset that doesn't consider things like probability and statistics in everyday life. I'd say more people have this mindset than the one you're expressing.
- mediacrisis 14y agoRhode Island always keeps it classy. Though I'm honestly surprised it wasn't Dunkin Donuts.
- kamloops 14y ago"You prefer 91 octane for your car as well? Nice"
- xymostech 14y agoYeeaaah Colorado. I'm actually kinda confused about that. It's not like have have that many more gas stations than other people or anything, right?
- suyash 14y agoThis is Reddit Material, sad to see it Making Page 1 on HN :(
- drucken 14y agoBorderline. It is derived from data, the data is suggestive, and given the number of comments from HN regulars, interesting enough. It could even lead to some "hacking"! Anyway, its a Friday in most of the world by now... :)
- liquidise 14y agoThis is only sad for 3 reasons: 1) Somebody spent the time, effort and likely funding to do an aggregate study of a craigslist Missed Encounters board. 2) This foolishly unrepresentative sample of the american populace is being referred to as a "scholarly study". 3) The author of this article is using this to make broad generalizations about the american social atmosphere based on the aforementioned unrepresentative sample. I suppose i should sit back and watch this silliness get plastered around facebook ad nauseum as people who don't know anyone who knew craigslist has a "missed encounters" page talk about the facts of their states' social climate.
- homosaur 14y agoYes, I agree, you should stay on Facebook and do whatever.
- charlieok 14y agoI'll take a crack at explaining the Colorado label. People here leave the Denver/Boulder area and head west into the mountains every weekend. The Sunday afternoon drive back is a miserable jam. Some of those mountain destinations are a pretty far drive, so if you're one of those who came here for the skiing, climbing and mountain biking (and judging by dating sites, most people here are) then you're making some stops for fuel and caffeine in some mountain town, wearing your ski outfit or bike shorts. If that's the explanation, I don't know why the label wouldn't be “trail” though.
- dandelany 14y ago>> If that's the explanation, I don't know why the label wouldn't be “trail” though. Probably because there are many ways to say it eg. "ski trail", "ski mountain", "ski run", "on the slopes", "chairlift" etc. whereas a gas station is just a gas station. Also, it's pretty hard to have a "missed connection" on a ski trail, seeing as how both parties tend to be in motion and ski goggles obscure eye contact :)
- charlieok 14y agoFair enough. I was thinking of all the times I've passed attractive people on hiking trails. People going downhill yield to people going uphill. Sometimes you stop and chat, ask about directions, the weather. I could easily see people wishing they'd gotten a number on occasions like that.
- Vivtek 14y agoDammit, Indiana, there you go making me cringe in the news again. At home? What does that even mean?
- Klinky 14y agoCouple examples I could think of: "I saw your at home. You were walking down the street talking to your friend in the pink shirt on Sunday by the intersection of Oak & Grove." "Me: In my garden working on my herbs. You: In the red SUV listening to Lady Gaga with the windows down. We made eye contact." "Saw you, cute redhead, at your home. Peeping in your window."
- runamok 14y agoWhy do they say "California is an actual self-parody"? I'd much prefer to meet someone at 24 Hour Fitness than Wal*mart...
- tibbon 14y agoI was just shocked that Nevada wasn't "Playa". Seriously, the missed connections post-Burning Man are amazing. "You were wearing a flamethrower with bright pink hair and green blinking boots while you were riding on top of the bus made to look like a disco elephant..."
- tricolon 14y agoHere is a higher resolution image: http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/slideshow/2013/02/118690-116662.png http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/slideshow/2013/02/11869...
- dbpatterson 14y agoSeems like a pretty small sample size - only 100 per state? I'm not familiar with how Craigslist works for this, but is there any reason why you couldn't select thousands and get better results (look for common words, rank them, etc). Seems like the variation would be pretty high...