This Algorithm Distills Your Life Story From Your Twitter Stream

What's This?

By Kurt Wagner2013-10-12 18:02:01 UTC

Just how much do your tweets reveal about you? A lot, apparently.

Researchers from Cornell and Carnegie Mellon University have created an algorithm that can tell a Twitter user's life story based on information shared over his or her account, according to the MIT Technology Review . By examining a person's tweets and interactions — and the tweets of his or her followers — professors Jiwei Li of Carnegie Mellon and Claire Cardie of Cornell say they can create a chronological timeline of someone's life.

See also: 25 Twitter Accounts to Make You Laugh

The algorithm starts by lumping tweets into four separate camps. Personal and non-personal, and time specific and time general. For example, a tweet about starting a new job would fall under the "personal - time specific" category, while a tweet about summer weather would be "non-personal - time general."

Knowing which category each tweet falls into is the challenging part, and this is where Twitter interactions can shed additional light on a tweet's magnitude. Researchers say that each category has different characteristics when it comes to retweets, replies and favorites, making it easier to distinguish between them. From there, it's as simple as building out a timeline of the most influential and important tweets from a person's feed.

The algorithm isn't perfect. For starters, it's only applicable to those who tweet often, and choose to share personal information. Plus, any life events that occurred before a person joined Twitter will most likely be missing from the timeline.

The duo does not have plans to distribute the algorithm to the masses right now, but told the MIT Technology Review it does have that potential. “It can be extended to any individual, (e.g. friend, competitor or movie star), if only he or she has a Twitter account,” they said.

What would your Twitter account share about you? Tell us in the comments, below.

Image: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Topics: algorithm, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, life story, Social Media, Twitter