In this post we’ll explore the results from an analysis of WhatsApp messages between Matt Newberry (“boyfriend”) and Lara Lourose (“girlfriend”).
Over the 592 days since our first message, we’ve exchanged 34291 messages. Matt sent 17714, whilst Lara sent 16577. That’s a difference of 1137 messages, it looks like Lara’s got some catching up to do in 2023!
We sent the most messages on 19/09/2022, with a total of 231. This was also the day we sent the most messages indivually.
Lara was the first to utter “I love you”* at 09:00 18/10/2021 and Matt followed suit a few days later at 23:32 21/10/2021.
*Note: The messsage had to match the phrase “I love you” exactly. The phrase “love you” was ignored
A 2000ft view
Let’s take a look at the relationship month by month…
Fig 1: WhatsApp Messages By Month
As you can see from the above, the monthly count remained pretty steady until the last 6 months, which saw a dramatic increase. The data was taken on the 3rd Decemeber 2022, hence the low count for that month.
Lara out-messaged Matt in only 2 of the months; April 2022 and November 2022.
But the monthly count doens’t give us the full picture. Let’s look at the average message length by month…
Fig 2: WhatsApp Average Message Length By Month
A clear trend is apparent. The average message length has decreased throughout the relationship. The reduced average message lengh coinciding with the increased message count shows a change in how we’re fundamentally communicating. Amazing!
As you can see Lara’s average message length was significantly higher than Matt’s in every month, but they’re trending towards an equalibirum.
Groundhog Day
This is what a day typically looks like…
Fig 3: WhatsApp Messages By Hour
We see a spike in messages around when we wake up, following by a smaller spike around lunchtime and then the majority of our messages in the evening.
The data gives a good indication of our sleep patterns, with Matt out-messaging Lara at 11pm and 12am and Lara out-messaging Matt at 10pm and 9am.
We’ve never sent a message between 5am-6am!
Literacy
Let’s take a look at the our most common words…
Fig 4: Lara’s Most Common Words
Fig 5: Matt’s Most Common Words
Neither of us are lyrical geniuses and these word clouds don’t really show much. A list of stop words were used to exclude filler words, which helped give the data some meaning.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we’ve seen some interesting pattens with our messages and noticed siginifcant changes in how we’ve communicated throughout our relationship. We’ve also reminisced on some important milestones in our relationship. Here’s to another great year together!
Merry Christmas Lara, I love you.