'Star Trek' fans can't stop talking about 'Star Wars,' analysis says
It's what Star Wars fans have long suspected to be the case, and we can confirm it appropriately enough on May the Fourth: Star Trek fans spend more time talking about the Wars than Star Wars fans spend talking about Trek.
Way more. Like 3.8 times more, according to analysis by writing app maker Grammarly, which examined the most upvoted comments in the Star Wars and Star Trek threads on Reddit; 2,000 comments in all.
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You can blame J.J. Abrams for a significant portion of that difference -- Trekkies are often concerned that Abrams, a Star Wars fan as a kid, made his two Trek movies (and a third on the way) way too Star Wars-esque for their tastes. Meanwhile, Star Wars fans barely even mention -- or care about -- the fact that Abrams directed Trek first.
The varying size of the communities under the microscope is another tip-off to their relative popularity. Star Wars is discussed by nearly half a million Redditors; Star Trek by less than 100,000.
But don't feel bad, Star Trek fans. You have slightly superior grammar skills overall, write more words per comment, and also have far better punctuation!
Trekkies are significantly worse at spelling than Star Wars fans, however. What's that about? (And yes, I checked with Grammarly, and yes, they controlled for Klingon words that might appear to be misspelled English words.)
Check out more details in this Grammarly graphic:
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Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
