Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2-13-2024
Abstract
Valentine’s Day, typically defined by expression of love and affection, has been celebrated as a symbolic day to exchange gifts among lovers. The expression of love has been firmly tied with the act of giving material things, such as gifts. However, over the years, discomfort and even anger has grown around the over-commercialization of Valentine’s Day, creating a deep divide between those who gift and those who criticize and denounce the holiday as nothing but a “Hallmark card holiday” to push consumerism. Our center’s study from the previous year indicated that over-commercialization of Valentine’s Day found that love is not defined by materialistic consumptions (Choi et al., 2023). However, the prospects for 2024 are different.
To explore social media users’ general sentiments towards the practice of gift giving on Valentine’s Day, this study utilized AI-driven social media analytics tool, Brandwatch, to collect and examine social conversations from various platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, and others. This study examined over 2 million social media posts over a 10-day period (February 1 - February 11) prior to Valentine’s Day 2024. Search queries related to Valentine’s Day (e.g., #Valentinesday, flowers, chocolate, jewelry, etc.) were built to collect data.
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Choi, Jin-A; Benton, Bond; and Luo, Yi, "An Investigation of Social Media Discussion on Valentine's Day 2024 Trends: Money Can Buy Love and Chocolates" (2024). School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works. 41.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/scom-facpubs/41
Included in
Advertising and Promotion Management Commons, Broadcast and Video Studies Commons, Business Analytics Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons
Comments
The Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication is a state-of-the-art communications hub at Montclair State’s School of Communication and Media. It is home to social listening platforms, content creation apps and consumer insights tools, and is used for instructional, research and co-curricular activity. Through research, reports, community events and special projects, the Center enhances the School’s profile as an authority on social media analytics while preparing our students for our data driven world. The tools also allow faculty and students to work on research projects that focus on economics, health, politics, social justice, sports and other key societal issues, which will create earned media opportunities for the School and assist faculty with publishing and other efforts.