Data Analysis: Five Feet Apart on Social Media

This blog post is a companion to this YouTube video. It will make much more sense if read after watching the video!

Please note that the Five Feet Apart film released on March 15th, 2019. I conducted my data analysis on April 24th, 2019 over the span of 5 hours and looked at posts made in the previous 40 days.
The summary of my data analysis is as follows:

It should be noted that 50 (or 92.5%) of the posts coded under awareness were written by CFers. This means that only 4/1860 or 0.02% of all posts I looked at on social media were coded as “awareness” and written by a non-CFer.
Lets breakdown how I coded on each platform and some examples in each category:

Twitter
I searched for “five feet apart” and counted any post which contained that phrase or the hashtag “#fivefeetapart” posts which were a link to a film review or otherwise from a film publisher (such as IMDb) were not counted.

Posts that were coded as “actors” had to be primarily focused on the actors in the film and/or any fandom content focused on the actors rather than their roles in the film. For example:

@BLVKGRAY “i’ve just finished watching five feet apart and let me tell you Cole Sprouse wasn’t a snack, he was the entire meal” Twitter, 27 Mar 2019, https://twitter.com/BLVCKGRAY/status/1111020182925967370

Posts that were coded as “film fandom” had to be focus on fandom creation based on the film such as a fanvid or piece of fanart, such as:

@pasttel2l “If you love something, you have to learn to let it go #FiveFeetApart” Twitter, 30 Apr 2019, https://twitter.com/pastte2l/status/1123199798515912705

Posts that were coded as “negative emotional response” were mainly about how an individual felt during or after watching the film, like:

@siddvisee “honestly thought I didn’t have feelings anymore until I went & saw #FiveFeetApart tonight and cried like a baby, so thank you @justinbaldoni
for that!” Twitter, 6 Apr 2019, https://twitter.com/siddvisee/status/1114386178181148672

It’s also notable that on some posts like these, the FFA official twitter reached out to the people who tweeted themselves crying asking if they could have a copy.

Posts that were coded as “inspiration” had to use a form of the word “inspire” and/or express content that implied the film encouraged them in some way to appreciate their healthy lives like:

@aXLeBarts “I just have to admit it. But watching @FiveFeetApart
really touch my heart. Life is short. Realizing that spending more time with loved ones with no hesitations, no boundaries, no limits, no distance and no fear. Whatever it takes just go for it. .” Twitter, 30 Mar 2019, https://twitter.com/aXLeBarts/status/1112009575622828038

Posts that were about “awareness” had to mention how they personally learned about CF from the film, mention some form of CF advocacy (such as a petition), or be using the tag to spread an educational message about CF, for example:

@cftrust “We’re already seeing a wave of conversation about #cysticfibrosis started by #FiveFeetApart in the past 24hours. That’s why we’ve put together this discussion guide to help you talk about the issues raised by the film or seek support” Twitter, 23 Mar 2019, https://twitter.com/cftrust/status/1109433529497251841

As an additional example I would love to give a shout-out to farinaz, the only social media post I was able to find of a non-CFer who learned from the film and tried to delve into online activism. Good job, Farinaz! (I found this after my initial search when I went back to check for any tweet like this as an example)

@farinaz28 “After watching the FiveFeetApart movie by @justinbaldoni
I have learnt what Cystic fibrosis is and about what people with CF and their families go through. Truly touching movie. You can donate to Claire’s place foundation to support children with CF #ALM10 (link: http://clairesplacefoundation.org) clairesplacefoundation.org” Twitter, 2 May 2019, https://twitter.com/farinaz28/status/1123845008942145538

Tumblr
The coding parameters on Tumblr were the same as they were for Twitter, and I searched for the film using the tags “fivefeetapart” and “ffa”. Some of these posts were too long to properly screenshot so please feel free to follow the links provided to see the full posts!

Actors/Actor Fandom example:

pure—hate “new photos of Cole and Hayley…” only god can judge me, Apr 2019, https://pure—hate.tumblr.com/post/183270624175/new-photos-of-cole-and-hayley-for-wonderland

Film Fandom example:

bettycooperxjones “you’re the kind of guy…” Jughead Jones, I love you, https://bettycooperxjones.tumblr.com/post/179690031049/youre-the-kind-of-guy-who-ignores-the-rules

Emotional Response example:

introvertedhuman01 “Five Feet Apart the movie…” introvert is my style, 7 Apr 2019, https://introvertedhuman01.tumblr.com/post/184028392854/five-feet-apart-the-movie-broke-my-heart-and-now-i

Inspiration Example:

shaakywarrior “this movie really has me thinking…” shaakywarrior, 15 Mar 2019, https://shaakywarrior.tumblr.com/post/183486305497/five-feet-apart

Awareness example:

Tumblr as opposed to Twitter and Instagram seemed to have more strong opinionated/activist posts from CFers both before and after the film came out, such as this one

violettetea “Make “Five Feet Apart” Justin…” thought I was dreaming, 4 Nov 2018, https://violettetea.tumblr.com/post/179757797510/make-five-feet-apartjustin-baldoni-give-film

Instagram

Once again, I used the same coding parameters on Instagram as on other platforms but since Instagram is heavily photo-based I sometimes relied on the photo and tags alone when there was no caption. I searched both the #fivefeetapart and #ffa tags.

Film Fandom example:

angheeellll “‘I never knew the importance of…'” Instagram, 8 Apr 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv-yohKA3G4/

Actors/Actor Fandom example:

cole.my.smilee “”hoooot….” Instagram, 25 Apr 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/BwstpDEjVP4/

Negative Emotional Response example:

sandy_im_no_one “Went to watch five…” Instagram, 13 Apr 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/BwNsNwvgXiP/

Inspiration Example:

movie_experience_ “this movie is for…” Instagram, 12 Apr 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/BwJtTSWFh7T/

Awareness example:

The awareness section on Instagram was really interesting because it appeared to mostly be CFers who were “inflitrating” the Five Feet Apart tag. They weren’t responding to the film, instead they were trying to reach out to the people looking through the tag in hopes they’ll know more about real-life CFers. I hope other people browsing the tag learned from these CFers posts!

travisflores “These are photos of my lungs…” Instagram, 16 Mar 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/BvDsTHxBl6e/

Google Trends
I wanted to see what the FFA marketing team may have been basing their claim of “113% increase in CF searches” since film ads began and so I looked ay the Google Trends search results of “cystic fibrosis” Worldwide between 2004-Present and in the past 12 months.

This trends search shows that, yes, searches for “cystic fibrosis” were higher during the month of the film’s advertisement (circled in pink) but it is not the highest it has been over time and it quite comparable to other peaks.

Over the past 12 months the period around the release of the FFA film has indeed seen the highest number of searched for “cystic fibrosis” (circled in pink) but I’d be hard pressed to consider this a revolutionary change in the scope of CF’s advocacy history.

Discussion and Conclusion

Based on my findings, it appears that “awareness” was not the major focus of film viewers, and their subsequent social media interactions. Each platform had different priorities of content. While Twitter had far more posts which were reactionary in nature (348 or 55%) both Tumblr and Instagram had far more postings which were made about the film actors (426/79% and 503/73% respectively) that were the majority (55%) of all total posts’ content. While the film’s marketing framed itself as creating “awareness” it is difficult to defend that stance based on the social media content created as a response to the film. Very few people actually posted about cystic fibrosis in response to the film, the social media responses were focused far more on the actors and on the film rather than the disease used within the film’s plot.

Have viewers actually gained meaningful “awareness” of Cystic Fibrosis, or is this knowledge merely superficial? The film’s marketing team implied that there might be a direct causal relationship between the “awareness” the film would raise and the likelihood of a cure for CF being found. But, considering that only one post by a non-CFer out of 1,860 posts across three platforms following the film’s release pushed for CF activism it is hard to believe that the social media reality has lived up to the marketing team’s claims. There’s a possibility that this surface knowledge will leave an impact on viewers down the line, Leonardi and Meyer (2014) argue that “simple awareness about the knowledge source and the knowledge itself can reduce ambiguity and provide the lubricant necessary to ensure that knowledge does not stick to its point of origin.” But it is difficult to see measure how much that simple awareness will last or lead to substantial real world change in the world of CF activism and the overall search for a cure. Overall, has the awareness raised by the Five Feet Apart film been significant as based on social media responses? According to my findings, I would have to conclude that, no, awareness of CF has not been significant either in quantity or quality.

Works cited:

Leonardi, Paul, and Samantha Meyer. “Social Media as Social Lubricant: How Ambient Awareness Eases Knowledge Transfer.” The American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 59, no. 1, 2015, p. 10.