What does social media think of Milan?

Nowadays, getting to know a city is synonymous with scrolling through TikTok's For You page. On social media, an endless series of videos lists the most interesting corners of Italian capitals, the must-visit restaurants, the new openings, and the bars where fashion and nightlife enthusiasts gather. In Milan, however, the web doesn't only highlight the city's shiny aspects but also its darker sides. By bringing a slice of reality online, users are denouncing a city divided between the Fashion Week and the expensive rents, between experimental breakfasts and the pollution problem, manifesting a Milanese antithesis that has caused a deep division in the hearts of its inhabitants. The new Digital Cover of nss magazine, Ti Odio Milano Ti Amo, exactly frames the ambivalent feelings of the citizens of Lombardy's capital towards the city, a snapshot to narrate the incongruities governing Milan. To add an extra dimension to the project, nss has analyzed the public perception of Milan by specifically examining how it's discussed online.

nss has developed a Social Portrait analyzing the main themes emerging online to discover how Milan is described on social media. Extracting over 2700 hashtags from thousands of Milan-related TikToks that received the most interactions in the last twelve months and subjecting them to a filtering and analysis process, a network analysis identified the main connections between hashtags and identified eleven groups divided according to the main themes of the sample content. With the help of algorithms and artificial intelligence, the discourse and sentiment analysis allows for an organic observation of the tone with which Milan is perceived and represented online, a digital overview of the city that confirms the contrasting feelings prevailing among the inhabitants of Lombardy's capital.

According to the Social Portrait, more than 20% of the content about the city of Milan offers tourist suggestions. Duomo, nightlife, street style, and things to do in Milan are the keywords of this niche, followed by the football world, covering 11%, and the concert sector, which with over 10% ranks even higher than the Fashion Week, at 9.6%. Placed halfway between beauty (9%) and food & beverage (5.1%), news and scandals occupy over 5% and 8% of the total sample content on Milan. In this context, the key themes guiding users' searches are pollution, the lives of students living away from home, incidents involving pickpockets in the subway, unemployment, and the latest outings of Beppe Sala, all topics that have loomed large both on social media and on the front pages of newspapers over the past year.

To better understand the sentiments expressed by users when sharing content about Milan, nss's Social Portrait presents further analysis on Instagram. By reviewing the descriptions of the top thousand posts with the highest number of interactions on the platform in the last twelve months, using the sociological research The Parrot Dilemma (2023) and Google's AI, a picture has emerged that exactly reflects every expectation. Almost a third of the social media content related to Milan is communicated with a conflictual and accusatory tone, and often at the center of the themes are the top figures of the municipal administration. In contrast, posts expressing neutral or enthusiastic tones range between 8% and 11%, with feelings of hope and respect convincing only 7% of the total discourse. For what is called "respect," there remain crumbs of 1.8%. The report samples only the social sphere but provides an accurate proof of Milan's public perception: despite its cultural richness, ever-evolving, despite the new bars and the warm communities that flock to them, Milan continues to leave a bitter taste in the mouth of anyone who sets foot there, whether they're an art or architecture enthusiast, a content creator, or a financial consultant.