Introduction
Full disclosure: I don't know very much about Twitter. I didn’t even have a Twitter account because my impression of Twitter was pretty bad. I didn't want to wake up to a million new tweets every morning about political and social debates. I didn't want to get a notification on my phone saying that yet another celebrity had tweeted about something controversial. Basically, I didn't want to be bombarded with notifications and become addicted to social media. After examining a Twitter conversation, I think my opinion has drastically changed. I absolutely love waking up and seeing that people are debating the really important stuff. I love that huge franchises--not just celebrities--tweet like five-year-olds. I mean, debating if Popeyes is better than Chick-fil-A is truly groundbreaking. Earth-shattering, even. I think you could say that the chicken sandwich debate has broken the internet.
So what is this debate? How did it get started? A crash course for those of you who still live under a rock and have saved yourselves from this cultural controversy: Popeyes and Chick-fil-A are now not only competing over who has the best chicken sandwich, they're basically at war. Chick-fil-A tweeted out saying that its recipe for its sandwiches was essentially a recipe for love, and Popeyes fired back questioning Chick-fil-A’s taste in sandwiches. Ever since, people have taken to Twitter to express their views on which ‘wich is the best.
Chick-fil-A, Inc. @ChickfilA
Bun + Chicken + Pickles = all the love for the original.
Popeyes Chicken @PopeyesChicken
... y'all good? @ChickfilA
Methods
To gather evidence, I used the hashtag #chickenSandwichWars to collect tweets pertaining to the chicken sandwich debate. I then analyzed 100 tweets for four categories: who the speaker supported, their reasoning behind their preferences, the tone of the tweet, and the rhetoric that was used to support each argument. I consolidated many classifications together, especially in the rationale and tone categories. Since there were many different variations of rationales and there are many tones one can use to describe a tweet, I kept it relatively simple with six different classifications for rationales and tones each.
Findings
The first finding that surprised me was that a lot of people were actually tweeting about this as if it was a pressing matter. Lines were forming outside every Popeyes restaurant in America as people rushed to try their chicken sandwiches for the first time ever. Popeyes even ran out of chicken. Publicity for both franchises skyrocketed, and the best part was that all of the publicity was free. People took to the internet to post their latest memes about the ongoing war between Popeyes and Chick-fil-A.
Many people were neutral in their stance about Popeyes vs. Chick-fil-A. The leading competitor for those who were neutral was mainly Wendy’s, but there were many people tweeting that their favorite places were Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), or even local places. There were many different ways people
supported their arguments, but the tweets showed an overwhelming use of pathos. Speakers that cited honesty or loyalty as their reasoning incorporated an emotional appeal into their arguments. Speakers citing honesty claimed that Popeyes is essentially the forgotten underdog that deserves to have the recognition that Chick-fil-A has, while speakers citing loyalty claimed that loyalty to Chick-fil-A was extremely important to them. One of the most interesting rationales was the fact that Popeyes eventually ran out of chicken. This rationale was used both in favor for Popeyes and for Chick-fil-A. Many people said that since Popeyes ran out of chicken, it was clearly in higher demand than Chick-fil-A chicken. Others said that since Popeyes couldn’t keep up with Chick-fil-A and since it isn’t as popular as Chick-fil-A on any given day, it was not as good as Chick-fil-A.
Limitations
These findings provide some valuable insight on what the public thinks is entertaining and important to modern culture, but there are some limitations. I did not have a very large or a very random sample. The method used to collect these tweets relied heavily on my selecting of tweets, and so the sample removed any random tweets that didn't really discuss the topic. Many people used the hashtag #chickenSandwichWars without even addressing their views on the sandwiches. They were simply using the hashtag to help their tweet reach a wider audience. Classifying the tweets into different tone categories relied on my interpretation of what the speaker was trying to get across. My definition of what each tweet's tone seemed like may not be completely accurate, and this may affect what category I placed each tweet under.
Conclusion
After analyzing the heated online debate over which chicken sandwich is the best, I have come to the conclusion that the Internet is filled with real geniuses. Who knew that talking about sandwiches is more important than talking about global warming or poverty or Planned Parenthood? Well, millions of people did, actually. Millions of people thought that it was important to voice their opinions on this trivial topic. And I guess that's the beauty of the internet; anyone can voice their opinions about literally anything. Even chicken sandwiches.
