By XAVIER SMERDON
TARNEIT is the rudest suburb in Melbourne’s West, according to an innovative map which can show exactly how many times people are swearing on one of the world’s most popular social media platforms.
Intelligent mapping experts Esri Australia has used Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to show how many people are swearing on Twitter.
The interactive map can show the top languages other than English that are being used in tweets in different suburbs.
But it also has the ability to show the number of tweets containing profanities in each and every suburb from November 2012 to March this year.
Tarneit easily topped the list with 490 rude tweets coming from the area in just four months.
Melton South was the second rudest suburb with 195 rude tweets, followed by Kings Park in the City of Brimbank which notched up 178 rude tweets.
Sunshine North was the most polite suburb, with only six tweets containing profanities registered.
Simon Jackson, a consultant with Esri Australia, created the map.
In a recent blog posting he said that his creation had many interesting applications.
“There are already some interesting stories in the map such as people tweeting from the airport runways,” Mr Jackson said.
“For now, Malay is leading in the top five languages spoken on Twitter (disregarding English) and the outer eastern suburbs are marginally winning in which suburb swears the most.”
Regular Twitter user and Tarneit resident Tania said she was surprised to hear that her suburb was the rudest in the West.
“I definitely don’t swear when I’m using it,” Tania said.
“I mostly use it so that my family and friends from around the world can keep up with what I’m doing. I guess it all depends on what you would consider a profanity.”
The map can be viewed by visiting www.languagesofmelbourne.com.au/public/LanguagesOfMelbourne/
