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Twitter Says Americans Are Happier In the Morning

Posted by samzenpus on from the 140-character-science dept.

DWF3046 writes "There are lots of things you can infer from Twitter. But while we're learning what we're eating or where we're flying, we haven't been able to use Twitter to determine how we're feeling. Researchers at Harvard and Northwestern have created a video that shows the mood in the US, as inferred using over 300 million tweets, over the course of the day. The results? The early morning and late evening appear to provide the highest levels of happiness. Geographically, the data points to a significantly happier west coast, which is consistently three hours behind the east coast."

10 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. North Americans are retarded by kyrio · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm happy all day long.

    1. Re:North Americans are retarded by Dashiva+Dan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think it's much more likely that people try to be more optomistic in the morning, but gradually become more realistic as they finally 'wake up and 'smell the coffee'

      --
      "lt;dr" is the correct response to most of my posts.
    2. Re:North Americans are retarded by kyrio · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Caffeine Addicts Get No Additional Perk, Only a Return To Baseline

  2. Before and after work by locallyunscene · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now where's my grant money?

    1. Re:Before and after work by geekmux · · Score: 3, Funny

      HEY. It took A LOT of people with A LOT of money with A LOT of time to do A LOT of work to INFER any results that you or I could have come up with using common sense.

      Don't rain on their parade.

      Uh, rain? That's not water I'm smelling over here coming from this huge steaming pile of "grant justification"...

      Besides, I'm failing to see how they determined "happiness" from the typical "taking my morning shit" and "I hate blueberries in my oatmeal" tweets.

  3. Am not. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fuck twitter. I hate mornings.

  4. This just in - Twitter discovers that work sucks! by BobMcD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled slashdot, but we have breaking news. Scientists at Twitter, Inc, have just published the shocking results from their study of the moods of their posters. They have some to the shocking conclusion that they do not like being at work. Stay with this station for more breaking news on this exciting topic!

  5. Florida and California by 2obvious4u · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They are almost always green. Must be the nice weather, beaches, and a getting to see people in swim suits all day.

    1. Re:Florida and California by e2d2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I know you said it in jest but since I moved from Washington DC to Florida my overall attitude has gotten much better. I attribute it to more sunshine and southern hospitality. People are generally pretty nice here. When I go back to DC to visit everyone seems kind of angry.

  6. Perhaps it is more of a cultural thing? by Rooked_One · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe its more "in" to be positive on the west coast, and negative on the east coast.

    I work with people from all over the US, and I would have 99% certainty that the people on the west coast are always more positive and better to work with than those on the east coast. Midwest people aren't so bad, but its really just a coin toss when it comes to the midwest or east coast.

    I can pretty much count on people in california being in a good mood no matter what time of day.

    Also to note is that if this is a "popular" thing to do, then the younger crowd is going to be more involved, so what does that say for our up and coming generation? As a gen X'er, i've been pretty scared by the notion that people that are 24 and younger couldn't live a day without their cell phone.