Is Seattle Boring?

That's the question posed by some new Facebook research: Pete Warden is a demographic researcher of some kind who uses data mined from Facebook to describe the United States:

Looking at the network of US cities, it's been remarkable to see how groups of them form clusters, with strong connections locally but few contacts outside the cluster. For example Columbus, OH and Charleston WV are nearby as the crow flies, but share few connections, with Columbus clearly part of the North, and Charleston tied to the South.

He's neatly separated the regions of the US into various geographic cliques according to their social connections - the aforementioned south is Dixie, the Northeast and Upper Midwest sprawl as Stayhomia. The the Southwest is split into Greater Texas and Nomadic Texas, bordered to the north by Mormonia. California he dubs Socalistan. The Pacific Northwest is the smallest of the clusters, centered around Seattle and Portland. Of it he says:

The most boring of the clusters, the area around Seattle is disappointingly average. Tightly connected to each other, it doesn't look like Washingtonians are big travelers compared to the rest of the West, even though a lot of them claim to need a vacation!

Burn!

(Thanks, Charlene!)