Like pretty much every other online entity out there (us included!), Facebook has put together some Father’s Day-themed content for us to ooooh and aaaaah over. Whether it’s to distract attention from its new advertising policies remains to be seen; that aside, though, it’s still kind of neat, especially if you’ve ever wondered how much you have in common with your dad. Spoiler: Probably a lot more than you think,
By taking a look at mutual “likes” among self-identified fathers and their 18-and-over offspring on Facebook and comparing them with “likes” among all people who use Facebook, the social media site’s data crunchers were able to get a pretty interesting look at how the interests of fathers and children overlap — because they definitely do overlap. Not only that, but they cover pretty much all the bases, both in terms of subject matter (we’re looking at television, movies, music, athletes, and sports teams) and relationship (fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, and fathers and kids of both genders).
I’ll admit that I’m not totally sure what to make of some of the general trends these lists display. The television, movie, and music preferences of both the dads and sons and dads and daughters lists seem to be… Hmmm… I think “weirdly gender stereotyped” is maybe the most accurate way to put it. For example, the top 10 most liked television shows for fathers and daughters include things like Teen Mom, Ellen, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Pretty Little Liars, and True Blood; meanwhile, the top 10 most liked shows for fathers and sons include Family Guy, Sons of Anarchy, Tosh.0, Two and a Half Men, and South Park. Not going to lie; for a very brief moment, I wondered if this is what's really going on whenever fathers and sons sit down to watch South Park together:
An equally bizarre trend emerges from the music listings: Dads and daughters seem to dig country (hey there, Miranda Lambert, Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, and Tim McGraw), while dads and sons are into classic rock (e.g., Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and Eric Clapton). And the same goes for movies, with the dad/daughter list including Easy A, The Notebook, and The Twilight Saga, and the dad/son list featuring Boondock Saints, The Dark Night, and The Hangover.
As far as the lists of things “liked” by fathers and kids of both genders go, though, the weirdest interest is in the music category: Apparently everyone loves Nickelback. To which I can say only this:
Of course, there’s only so much we can read into these kinds of lists; I’m sure there are plenty of dads and daughters who share a love of Fight Club out there, as well as plenty of boys who listen to country along with their fathers. Also, notice that hobbies outside of the passive entertainment we consume aren’t included — which means we’ve got no information on, say, whether girls like to game with their dads as much as boys do or whether kids like to cook, knit, tinker with electronics, or read as much as their fathers do. In any event, if there is something in particular you share with your dad, why not take a little time to enjoy it together this Sunday? There’s nothing like a good old fashioned Father’s Day Sons of Anarchy marathon!
