Capturing Trends and Identifying the Emerging Cool: A Study of Indian Bollywood Celebs on Twitter

Abstract

People actively participating on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and blogs are questioning the age old logic of boundaries and space. Virtual networks like twitter have given space which not only explores individual self but also connects to a mass phenomenon emerging through thought leaders, celebrities or ‘trend setters’. This study is an attempt to take the argument further and identify the emerging ‘trend’ in India through the celebtweets. To verify the argument empirically tweets of ten celebrities on twitter from Bollywood which include actors, choreographers, musicians, and producers were collected over a period of one month and tweet analysis was done by adopting hermeneutics as the method of data analysis. Appropriate codes were considered to address the major question of the paper on ‘social trends’ and the notion of ‘being cool’ to validate the question raised in the paper