Researchers Analyze Twitter To Find Happiest Parts of the United States

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Researchers Analyze Twitter To Find Happiest Parts of the United States

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday February 20, 2013 @05:10AM from the alternatively-adhd-affliction dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes "If you live in Hawaii, congratulations: according to a new study (PDF) by researchers at the University of Vermont, you live in the happiest state in the union — at least as far as Twitter sentiment is concerned. (Hat tip to The Atlantic for posting about the research.) The researchers — affiliated with the University's Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Complex Systems Center, Computational Story Lab, and Advanced Computing Core — collected 10 million geo-tagged Tweets from 373 urban areas across the United States in 2011 and ran them through a system designed to tag each on a scale from 1 (sad) to 9 (happy). According to the study, the five happiest states include Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Utah and Vermont; the five saddest are Louisiana, Mississippi, Maryland, Delaware and Georgia. In general, the West and Northeast seemed much happier than the Mid-Atlantic and South—with the exception of Florida, which shaded 'happier' than many of the surrounding states. While the researchers admitted their study's limitations, there are certainly a lot of opportunities for refining the model: for example, if Hawaii's status as a vacation state affects its rate of 'happy' Tweets, or if incorporating languages other than English into the dataset would affect the ultimate results."

111 of 160 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Hawaii by CohibaVancouver · 2013-02-20 05:14 · Score: 2

Frankly, I'm not surprised. I amazed many more Americans don't live in Hawaii. I realize there are many reasons people live where they do - Family and friend connections, employment, intertia... But man, if it was easy for me to move to Hawaii I'd be there in a shot. It's just such an agreeable place - Particulary places like Kauai.
1. Re:Hawaii by Quanticfx · 2013-02-20 05:20 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed, if I could find a job that allowed me to live there and could convince my wife to move to Kauai, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
2. Re:Hawaii by eksith · 2013-02-20 05:29 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yes, but don't forget, a lot of people *visit* Hawaii as well, which would really add to those Tweets. Who doesn't let the world know they're enjoying their vacation these days (or suffering, whichever the case). I mean it's a lovely place to be, if you're already well off or have the means to support yourself. As you added, employment and inertia are key here, since you can keep in touch with friends and family over Skype.
  
  --
  If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
3. Re:Hawaii by Dexter+Herbivore · 2013-02-20 05:34 · Score: 1
  
  I'm an Australian who has visited Hawaii. I'm not surprised at this result, Hawaii is lovely. The people were nice, lots of attractive people on the beaches but without the pretension of Californian beaches, seemed to be a healthy local economy, good food, relatively low population density (I'm guessing, there seemed to be a lot of open space), good climate and relatively prosperous.
4. Re:Hawaii by operagost · 2013-02-20 05:37 · Score: 2
  
  I amazed many more Americans don't live in Hawaii.
  
  Yeah, I wonder.
  
  I realize there are many reasons people live where they do - Family and friend connections, employment, intertia... But man, if it was easy for me to move to Hawaii
  
  Well, those are several good reasons.
  
  --
  
  Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
5. Re:Hawaii by ShieldW0lf · 2013-02-20 05:42 · Score: 1
  
  I thought the place was a shithole, myself. I only stayed to break up the 20+ hr flight across the Pacific. The jarring clash between crass American culture and the beautiful landscape was painful to be around, frankly.
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
6. Re:Hawaii by theakstonsXB · 2013-02-20 05:43 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Great point. Study claim is geolocated tweets *not* that people living there tweet. Seems that the vacation spots have the highest happiness. Who knew.
7. Re:Hawaii by cayenne8 · 2013-02-20 06:19 · Score: 1
  
  They obviously didn't do this study a couple of weeks ago in LA during Mardi Gras!!!!
  I think the 'happiness meter' would have blown through the roof if they did....
  Or, perhaps they did this poll on Ash Wednesday, when everyone here was hungover?
  Either way, I have a hard time believing the LA is in the saddest category....everyone here seems to generally be upbeat, happy, and glad we live in (at least in the NOLA area) a place with no open container laws, and you can get a drink 'to go' from a bar...and there's always a festival going on year round.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
8. Re:Hawaii by CrimsonAvenger · 2013-02-20 06:25 · Score: 2
  
  Either way, I have a hard time believing the LA is in the saddest category....everyone here seems to generally be upbeat, happy, and glad we live in (at least in the NOLA area) a place with no open container laws, and you can get a drink 'to go' from a bar...and there's always a festival going on year round.
  And mustn't forget the Drive-Thru Daiquiri Shops...
  I think the secret to their analysis is that they didn't consider the possibility that some people are too busy partying to tweet. They're only accounting for the people who are happy, but not TOO happy....
  
  --
  
  "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
9. Re:Hawaii by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-20 06:35 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Don't believe it. I live in Hawaii, and it's not paradise. There's no work, people here nuts....
  The reason Hawaii is skewed toward being the, "Happiest state" is because of all the tourists that are tweeting. There are not that many computer literate people who live here. It ain't us.
  tom
10. Re:Hawaii by chipschap · 2013-02-20 06:37 · Score: 2
  
  Well, I live in Hawai`i and I'm pretty happy about it :) But if you want to move here --- there's a problem with the high cost of living and relatively low paying jobs, if you even find one. Someone once called it "New York prices on Midwest wages." No so easy go Hawai`i, brah.
11. Re:Hawaii by eksith · 2013-02-20 07:36 · Score: 1
  
  Lot of folks stay off Twitter because it can be a little addictive and because they don't see much use in it. Also, some people start and then stop Twitter as it can get overwhelming at times for some people. People may be posting pics on Facebook and occassionally commenting, replying to messages etc... but I doubt happy people heavily socialise on social media.
  I do get some enjoyment from Twitter. Granted a lot of it is meaningless rubbish, but you'd be surprised how pithy someone can be in under 140 characters.
  
  --
  If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
12. Re:Hawaii by cayenne8 · 2013-02-20 08:19 · Score: 1
  
  Or don't like living in a city with a murder rate consistently among the highest in the nation?
  Yeah, that part blows about New Orleans, but on the positive note...as long as you aren't in the projects buying crack, you aren't likely to be shot and killed. I don't live with fear of that down here....I enjoy the wonderful people here that I meet out daily, the food and the unique culture here.
  There is a feeling of freedom I feel living here, as opposed to elsewhere in the US.
  No such thing as HOA's here.....and one some houses, well, purple just works.
  :)
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
13. Re:Hawaii by hawguy · 2013-02-20 08:49 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Living in Hawaii is not quite the same as visiting there. Hawaii is small - even on Oahu (the most populated island), you can't drive any further than an hour from home (any more than that and you're on your way back home again). If you have family back on the mainland, you're an expensive 5 hour plane ride to the West Coast to visit them - worse if you're going to the East Coast. Housing is expensive too - in Honolulu, expect to pay San Francisco rates for housing, other islands and areas farther from Honolulu tend to be less expensive. Everything is expensive there because nearly everything is shipped in. Salaries tend to be lower than mainland salaries. Electricity is extremely expensive - around 30 cents/KWh. Forget getting good deals online - many places don't ship to Hawaii, or if they do, they use expensive UPS or Fedex shipping (where the least expensive shipping method is 2-day air) - USPS is affordable if you can find a vendor willing to ship via USPS. It'll be expensive to ship your household goods, and you'll pay (mostly) by volume, not be weight, so you probably won't be bringing much furniture... it'll be shipped by boat so you won't have it for a month. You can ship your car for around $1200, and it might be cheaper to do that than to sell it and buy a new one once you get there. Don't expect to be welcomed with open arms by local Hawaiians -- Hawaiians have strong family ties and social bonds, and it's hard to really fit in until you've lived on the Islands for years, and even after you've lived there for a decade or more, you still won't always be treated as a "local".
  That said, for some people Hawaii really is a paradise and they are very happy there, but for others, Island Fever starts to set in after a couple years (or less). Before you pack your bags and decide to move to HI, spend a week (or more), with an eye toward what it would be like to live there (check out grocery and other household goods prices, car and gasoline prices, look at apartments, etc) make sure it's really right for you.
14. Re:Hawaii by T.E.D. · 2013-02-20 08:58 · Score: 1
  
  Then they go home, get the bill, and skew the results there too.
15. Re:Hawaii by cayenne8 · 2013-02-20 09:43 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Funny, Here in New Orleans our 4 seasons of the year are:
  Shrimp, Crab, Crawfish and Oyster.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
16. Re:Hawaii by yurtinus · 2013-02-20 10:07 · Score: 1
  
  Too small and far too much water. Doncha know people can't breathe underwater?! I'll visit there someday and I'm sure I'll enjoy the hell out of it, but I don't want to live anywhere that I can't just hop in my car or on my motorbike and leave.
  
  --
  +1 Disagree
17. Re:Hawaii by ediron2 · 2013-02-20 15:52 · Score: 1
  
  What about Hurricane and FuckinHumid? Are they the seasonal equivalent of a Hobbit's 'Second Breakfast'?
18. Re:Hawaii by cayenne8 · 2013-02-21 02:54 · Score: 1
  
  What about Hurricane and FuckinHumid?
  
  Well, during hurricane season, I figure once or twice a year, I have a built in excuse to leave town for a few days, visit friends/family out of state...that's about all it usually is. And with Humidity...well, that's what Air Conditioning is for.
  :)
  And after awhile, you start to get used to it a bit, and as you age, that extra moisture in the air helps keep your skin looking younger, not so dried and wrinkled as early in life. Then again...too much smoking and drinking can counterbalance that skin thing...
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Duh by tekrat · 2013-02-20 05:17 · Score: 4, Insightful

So, lemme get this straight... If you live in a tropical paradise, you're happier than if you live in a state with a depressed economy and terrible weather.
In other news, grass is green.

--
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
1. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-20 05:31 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  No if you're posting from a vacation destination you're probably happy.
2. Re:Duh by Kenja · 2013-02-20 05:40 · Score: 1
  
  You're missing the most important part, apparently if you dont use Twitter you're not happy!
  
  --
  
  "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
3. Re:Duh by PeeAitchPee · 2013-02-20 05:41 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, Maryland is quite affluent and has been relatively less affected by the economic downturn -- due to its proximity to Washington DC. Perhaps it's the latent self-loathing of all of the folks working for the Federal gov't that's being picked up? ;-)
  (This observation is only partially tongue in cheek and posted by a member of an endangered species, the Maryland Small Business Owner)
4. Re:Duh by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · 2013-02-20 05:45 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. Nevada (Las Vegas, Reno) is also a popular vacation destination. All we know about the Tweets in question is that they were "geo-tagged" - not that they came from residents. I'm guessing Florida (Disney World) would have ranked higher if it weren't for all the angry old people populating the rest of the state.
5. Re:Duh by thetoadwarrior · 2013-02-20 05:48 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion but I assume you don't use twitter so there may be some true that.
6. Re:Duh by NeutronCowboy · 2013-02-20 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  No, it doesn't even mean that. It means that people in a tropical paradise use the word happy more often in their twitter posts than people in other states. It has little correlation with actual happiness - or at least, a completely unknown correlation. And even the causation is incredibly suspect. In other words, this is a bullshit study with no informational content.
  Yeah, I'm bitter, because I get to support these same useless tools in our company and get to field questions around "so how does this work" and "so you mean this is completely useless" and "why do you sell such useless crap?"
  
  --
  Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
7. Re:Duh by AK+Marc · 2013-02-20 06:50 · Score: 1
  
  Old people don't tweet. They shout randomly at strangers and consider that the same thing.
  
  --
  Learn to love Alaska
8. Re:Duh by Rockoon · 2013-02-20 07:09 · Score: 1
  
  Its called selection bias.
  
  Maybe sad people seek greater attention through tweeting such that P(tweet | happy) is significantly less than P(tweet | sad)
  
  In such a case the ratio between happy and sad tweets would not contain much information about a geographical area. A better measure would be happy tweets per capita, and sad tweets per capita, both being distinct measures such that the happiest place could also be the saddest place.
  
  --
  "His name was James Damore."
9. Re:Duh by Anubis+IV · 2013-02-20 07:26 · Score: 2
  
  It's even simpler than that: they engaged in massive selection bias.
  Words like "beach" were scored with a high happiness rating, according to the paper. From there, it's trivial to see that people living closer to the beach will score higher on the happiness index, even if they're not necessarily happier, and sure enough, virtually the entire American coast is painted with happy colors on the map contained in the paper (with the exception of the Gulf Coast, which was unsurprisingly painted with unhappy colors, given that the BP oil spill was still relatively recent at the time that the data was polled).
  Another example is that "hi" was rated as a happy word, yet "HI" is the state code for Hawaii, which would obviously mean that Hawaiians simply referring to their state using the state code (which is quite likely, given the 140 character limit on Twitter) would have an artificially bumped happiness rating on their tweet. They even acknowledged this in the paper, but chose to ignore it.
  It's one thing if you want to rate words that are not associated with a location (e.g. "rainbow") as happy, but if you're going to rate common terrain features as happy, you're clearly biasing your data towards people living in regions that exhibit those features.
10. Re:Duh by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-20 08:03 · Score: 1
  
  sane Conservatives.
  I defend to the death your right to distinguish the various colours of shit, but you're still discussing the colour of shit.
11. Re:Duh by yurtinus · 2013-02-20 10:12 · Score: 1
  
  Makes perfect sense - people are always raving about the happy beaches of Nevada!
  
  --
  +1 Disagree
12. Re:Duh by default+luser · 2013-02-20 10:19 · Score: 1
  
  I was thinking the same thing - what the hell is Maryland doing on that list? Every one of my friends is right now gainfully employed, and none have been jobless for more than a few months over the last couple years.
  I suppose Maryland loses out on the tourist tweeting factor (lots of DC tourists, but rarely do they go north), and I guess also that people will complain about ANYTHING, even if they have a job!
  
  --
  Man is the animal that laughs.
  And occasionally whores for Karma.
13. Re:Duh by babywhiz · 2013-02-20 10:33 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. I have several friends that live in Vegas. People that live there are terribly angry. All this study did was point out the happiest vacation spots.
PDF warning? by rasper99 · 2013-02-20 05:20 · Score: 1

We used to get warnings when a link was a PDF. Thar could be danger thar maties!
1. Re:PDF warning? by DaveGod · 2013-02-20 05:33 · Score: 1
  
  I think it is reasonable to consider that anyone who does not trust Adobe Reader is responsible for disabling it or installing an alternate reader.
  Actually I wouldn't be surprised if the PDF-warning arose not in the interests of security, but from the days of dial-up internet and to advise it opens another application. Back in the day if there was a PDF to read I always used to download it as a file and then open it because Reader was a complete ass at trying to download pages as I was reading through it.
2. Re:PDF warning? by jon3k · 2013-02-20 08:40 · Score: 1
  
  If only you could see the destination of a link somewhere when you put your mouse over it.
Happy Coincidence by bill_mcgonigle · 2013-02-20 05:21 · Score: 5, Insightful

That the Univerity of Vermont researchers' methodology indicates that Vermont is among the happiest states.

--
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Prison population by Dyinobal · 2013-02-20 05:23 · Score: 4, Interesting

Louisiana has the largest prison population and is also the saddest place according to this study, coincidence?
1. Re:Prison population by hedwards · 2013-02-20 06:28 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, they're probably both caused by the same thing, but there's probably not a direct connection between the two. I'm not at all surprised by the South dominating the bottom five spots. The conservative hands off policies on regulation and unmotivated union busting tend not to correlate very well with quality of life.
2. Re:Prison population by Bomazi · 2013-02-20 06:28 · Score: 1
  
  Given that inmates don't have internet access, yes.
3. Re:Prison population by Nyder · 2013-02-20 11:02 · Score: 1
  
  Louisiana has the largest prison population and is also the saddest place according to this study, coincidence?
  weird, considering you aren't usually allowed internet access in jail/prison.
  
  --
  Be seeing you...
Another study finds... by pesho · 2013-02-20 05:24 · Score: 4, Funny

... that happy people do not use Twitter.
Red states, Blue states by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-20 05:24 · Score: 2, Interesting

Anyone else find it interesting that, in general, red states (Republican) are mostly blue (unhappy) on the map, while blue states (Democrat) are mostly red (happy) on the map?
1. Re:Red states, Blue states by operagost · 2013-02-20 05:42 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I would find it interesting if that were actually the case. You think that New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio are Republican-controlled states? And Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Florida are Democrat-controlled states? That's enough to take the words "general" out of it.
  
  --
  
  Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
2. Re:Red states, Blue states by characterZer0 · 2013-02-20 05:48 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The republicans enjoy making angry tweets. They are just as happy, but the data analysis does not understand them.
  
  --
  Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
3. Re:Red states, Blue states by asylumx · 2013-02-20 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  Depends if you're talking about the results of the last presidential election, or something else. Michigan, for example, often goes blue in statewide elections but ends up with heavy Republican leanings in their state house & senate.
4. Re:Red states, Blue states by dkleinsc · 2013-02-20 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  That's not really the relevant correlation, because as a sibling poster points out, that doesn't actually control for anything.
  More interesting to me is happiness versus median household income: There may be some sort of relationship between those two, but there appear to be some happy places that aren't rich and some rich places that aren't happy.
  
  --
  I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
5. Re:Red states, Blue states by asylumx · 2013-02-20 06:27 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  The republicans enjoy making angry tweets. They are just as happy, but the data analysis does not understand them.
  That's odd, they don't tend to understand data very well, either.
6. Re:Red states, Blue states by hedwards · 2013-02-20 06:35 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  Conservatives don't value freedom. During the Bush administration, we lost a ton of freedom, especially during the period where the GOP controlled everything. The only thing that temporarily arrested the slide was that Bush managed to piss off SCOTUS enough that they started to say no.
  Conservatives value certain freedoms like the 2nd amendment, but are pretty hostile towards the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments.
7. Re:Red states, Blue states by DeadCatX2 · 2013-02-20 08:02 · Score: 1
  
  PA has 13 red districts and 5 blue districts. OH has 12 red districts and 4 blue districts.
  Sounds Republican controlled to me. Now, if you want to talk about a Republican popular vote...OH is still Republican controlled (51% R, 46% D in the last election), but PA would be narrowly controlled by Democrats (50% D, 49% R). But having a higher popular vote in today's United States of America doesn't necessarily mean that you control the associated legislature.
  
  --
  :(){ :|:& };:
8. Re:Red states, Blue states by liquid_schwartz · 2013-02-20 08:14 · Score: 2
  
  And Obama / Democratic party majority changed this how? In reality politicians are hostile to freedom of the masses. This applies to both parties. The current administration has extended or maintained just about everything Bush II did. Not that Bush II was justified, but the Democrats have pushed even further with targeted killings and such. We desperately need a third party with more traction to help balance this out.
9. Re:Red states, Blue states by chipschap · 2013-02-20 08:57 · Score: 1
  
  This is very interesting, as Hawai`i is virtually a one-party state, the Dems have near total control and with a few rare exceptions, just about always have.
10. Re:Red states, Blue states by hawguy · 2013-02-20 09:03 · Score: 1
  
  When was the last time the government moved in a conservative direction (as opposed to merely slowing its march to the left)? It hasn't happened in my lifetime. And given the near monopoly the left has on the mainstream opinion-making I see no hope for it happening anytime soon.
  I think it last happened when Republicans were really conservative instead of the "we are against anything the democratic party is for, and anything bad that has ever happened is Obama's fault" party.
11. Re:Red states, Blue states by readin · 2013-02-20 09:47 · Score: 1
  
  When was the last time federal government spending decreased? When was the last time the amount of regulation in society decreased?
  
  You're mistaken if you think we blame everything on Obama. There is plenty of blame to go around. Nearly all, or perhaps all, presidents of the last 80 years have steadily toward a society of greater government control and less freedom.
  
  --
  I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
12. Re:Red states, Blue states by readin · 2013-02-20 10:00 · Score: 1
  
  Conservatives don't value freedom. During the Bush administration, we lost a ton of freedom, especially during the period where the GOP controlled everything.
  Obama has kept up most of Bush's war policies except of course that he's replaced waterboarding with execution by drone.
  
  The only thing that temporarily arrested the slide was that Bush managed to piss off SCOTUS enough that they started to say no.
  So you're saying Bush actually listened to the SCOTUS?
  Have any of Obama's "recess appointments" resigned now that they've been ruled unconstitutional?
  
  Conservatives value certain freedoms like the 2nd amendment, but are pretty hostile towards the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments.
  1st amendment: Freedom of speech and religion. It isn't conservatives who are pushing for speech codes and trying to tell people to do things that violate their religion.
  
  4th amendment: no unreasonable searches and seizures - I haven't noticed either conservatives or liberals doing well on this one. The war on terror under Bush and Obama, the war on drugs, the war on whatever each side considers bad - all seem to make every search and seizure reasonable.
  
  5th amendment; a whole bunch of things which, like the protections of the 4th amendment, seem to be a problem for both sides
  
  14th amendment: For the most part both conservatives and liberals support the 14th amendment with the exception of the part about "equal protection of law". For 100 years after the civil war the Democrats denied equal protection to blacks. Then in the 1960s they joined Republicans in passing the Civil Rights act. Then they decide that equal protection wasn't good enough and started pushing programs that discriminate against whites (and in many cases is against people of Asian ancestry too).
  
  --
  I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
13. Re:Red states, Blue states by readin · 2013-02-20 10:04 · Score: 1
  
  Conservatives don't value freedom. During the Bush administration, we lost a ton of freedom, especially during the period where the GOP controlled everything. The only thing that temporarily arrested the slide was that Bush managed to piss off SCOTUS enough that they started to say no.
  Bush was a moderate, not a conservative. All we get for president are moderates and liberals. That's one of the reasons conservatives are so depressed. Even if McCain or Romney had one we would have had a moderate instead of a liberal.
  
  --
  I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
14. Re:Red states, Blue states by hedwards · 2013-02-20 18:18 · Score: 1
  
  Just out of curiosity, how do you make those changes without having a veto-proof majority in the Senate? Yes, some of this could have been handled via executive orders, and Obama deserves shit for that.
  But, the fact of the matter, is that Obama couldn't just open the doors of GITMO, and anything else would require congressional approval, something which the GOP has refused to permit.
15. Re:Red states, Blue states by poofmeisterp · 2013-02-21 06:03 · Score: 1
  
  Anyone else find it interesting that, in general, red states (Republican) are mostly blue (unhappy) on the map, while blue states (Democrat) are mostly red (happy) on the map?
  This could be worthless information, but I'm just throwing my thoughts out into the open here...
  I believe that the liberals have more "hope" than conservatives. Conservatives are more rational and change-limited. Logically, one with hope is more of a happy person with the belief that there is more positive coming in the future. One with rational thought is more likely to know that there are positives and negatives coming in the future which offset each other, thereby limiting overall happiness to a median state (no pun intended).
  Just rambling, but hey... "think about it won't you, thank you." - Sub-quote from MST3K
16. Re:Red states, Blue states by operagost · 2013-02-21 09:15 · Score: 1
  
  You think that each district in PA has exactly the same number of people in it?
  
  --
  
  Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
automated? by phantomfive · 2013-02-20 05:27 · Score: 1

I think this just means that Utah is the most sarcastic state.

--
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Anecdotal observation by lewoot · 2013-02-20 05:31 · Score: 1

It seems to me that the more happy or optimistic a person is in their social network presence, the more troubled they seem to be IRL. Personally, when I'm happy, the last thing I think of doing is proving it to other people. Just my two cents.
Hot, Cold, Vice, Virtue by Bob9113 · 2013-02-20 05:36 · Score: 4, Interesting

Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Utah
Hot, cold, vice, and virtue.

--
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
1. Re:Hot, Cold, Vice, Virtue by tanujt · 2013-02-20 05:42 · Score: 2
  
  Virtue?
2. Re:Hot, Cold, Vice, Virtue by Anubis+IV · 2013-02-20 06:44 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Utah is commonly associated with Mormonism, which is generally considered to have followers who are rather courteous and virtuous, if a bit annoying with their missionaries knocking on doors.
3. Re:Hot, Cold, Vice, Virtue by Nyder · 2013-02-20 11:05 · Score: 1
  
  Utah is commonly associated with Mormonism, which is generally considered to have followers who are rather courteous and virtuous, if a bit annoying with their missionaries knocking on doors.
  Hmm, most people i know consider Mormons to be batshit crazy.
  
  --
  Be seeing you...
4. Re:Hot, Cold, Vice, Virtue by Anubis+IV · 2013-02-20 18:34 · Score: 1
  
  Utah is commonly associated with Mormonism, which is generally considered to have followers who are rather courteous and virtuous, if a bit annoying with their missionaries knocking on doors.
  Hmm, most people i know consider Mormons to be batshit crazy.
  ...which isn't mutually exclusive with anything I said. ;)
Delaware by Mystakaphoros · 2013-02-20 05:41 · Score: 1

In Delaware, we're all just looking for the exit to the parking lot.
More datamining nonsense by NeutronCowboy · 2013-02-20 05:42 · Score: 1

The study just did a search for specific words, tabulated the results, and said that because happy words mean happy posters and unhappy words (and swear words) mean unhappy people, that their study was a study on happiness.
Complete bullshit. I have yet to even see a study that determines what percentage of happy words correlate with an actually happy post (Classic example: "Steak overdone. Not happy"), and extrapolate from there to overall numbers. Instead, it's just some people making shit up so that they can sell their tools to executives who are looking for some numbers.
This is nothing but a complete waste of time, and of money.

--
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
1. Re:More datamining nonsense by NeutronCowboy · 2013-02-20 06:08 · Score: 1
  
  It says so right in the paper. It uses pre-assigned scores for specific words, tabulates the words, runs a basic normalization function on the words, and presto! Paper.
  This is nonsense on multiple levels.
  
  --
  Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Mod Parent Up by awtbfb · 2013-02-20 05:46 · Score: 1

No if you're posting from a vacation destination you're probably happy.
Exactly. If the researchers didn't account for traveling behavior (i.e., check to see if the person was posting from their typical geographical region) then the results would be heavily skewed by vacations. Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Utah and Vermont are all popular vacation locations.
Does not match up well with Gallup by Attila+Dimedici · 2013-02-20 05:51 · Score: 3, Interesting

Gallup does a "well-being" poll (the factors they use to determine "well-being" correlate pretty well with happiness). While the Gallup poll agrees that Hawaii is the "happiest", the rest of their poll comes out significantly different. For example, the Twit survey from this article has Florida as above the median for happiness, the Gallup poll has them third from the bottom. Another example, this Twit poll puts Maryland near the bottom, while Gallup puts it near the top. The real problem with the Twit survey is that states that are vacation destinations will have a disproportionate representation of people who are not involved in their daily grind. I suspect That not only are people who are on vacation more likely to be happy, those that are Twits probably tweet more while on vacation.

--
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
1. Re:Does not match up well with Gallup by asylumx · 2013-02-20 06:30 · Score: 1
  
  That said, you typically vacation to placed that make you happy. Therefore these places were probably "happy places" before the tweeters decided to vacation there. Chicken vs egg.
2. Re:Does not match up well with Gallup by Princeofcups · 2013-02-20 06:48 · Score: 1
  
  Gallup does a "well-being" poll (the factors they use to determine "well-being" correlate pretty well with happiness). While the Gallup poll agrees that Hawaii is the "happiest", the rest of their poll comes out significantly different. For example, the Twit survey from this article has Florida as above the median for happiness, the Gallup poll has them third from the bottom.
  This is a study of the happiness of technically savvy people. As cheap and ubiquitous as cell phones are, Florida is full of people who live outside the cities and couldn't care less about twitter. The Gallup poll would, in theory, include those people. And from the sound of it, they are not very happy individuals. :-)
  
  --
  The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
3. Re:Does not match up well with Gallup by Attila+Dimedici · 2013-02-20 06:51 · Score: 1
  
  Except that according to the Gallup poll several of them do not show up as happy places.
  
  --
  The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
4. Re:Does not match up well with Gallup by Attila+Dimedici · 2013-02-20 08:40 · Score: 1
  
  No, this is a study of the happiness of Twits, some of whom are technically savvy people, but most of whom are just twits. It does not take any technical savvy to be on Twitter.
  
  --
  The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
5. Re:Does not match up well with Gallup by CrimsonAvenger · 2013-02-20 08:52 · Score: 1
  
  This is a study of the happiness of technically savvy people.
  No, this is a study of people who twitter.
  Being technically savvy does not equate to "I use twitter".
  Nor does "I use twitter" equate to "I am technically savvy".
  
  --
  
  "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
6. Re:Does not match up well with Gallup by ChrisMaple · 2013-02-20 16:46 · Score: 1
  
  Perhaps very old people don't tweet. That would explain Florida. It would also explain New Hampshire not being among the happiest, despite being between Maine and Vermont geographically.
  
  --
  Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
I'm not using twitter... by hugortega · 2013-02-20 06:20 · Score: 1

so, am I on an undefined happiness state? I don't use facebook neither... so, am I a terrorist? ... according to many recent "studies".
Lithium In Drinking Water by james.sneed.aglife.c · 2013-02-20 06:28 · Score: 1

I wonder if the amount of lithium in the drinking water correlates with this data? Just curious if the states that are happy in general have higher trace amounts of lithium in the drinking water supply. I know in the past studies have shown suicide rates have been correlated to the amount of lithium in drinking water so I think it does make a valid question if it correlates to happiness in general. http://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/content/11/1/19
I'll save you some troubls by sjames · 2013-02-20 06:48 · Score: 1

Don't bother. They looked at 10 million whole tweets (out of a population of 300million) and counted 'happy words' like rainbow, love, beauty, hope, wonderful, wine vs. "sad words" like damn, boo, ugly, smoke, hate, lied. The 'happy' or 'sad' status of words was determined by asking mechanical turk workers.
1. Re:I'll save you some troubls by blueg3 · 2013-02-20 07:48 · Score: 1
  
  They looked at 10 million whole tweets (out of a population of 300million)
  Population size doesn't actually matter for statistics, even though people often think it does. Systematic bias in selecting your random sample matters (as does sample size and size of effect being measured), but not total population size.
2. Re:I'll save you some troubls by sjames · 2013-02-20 08:17 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, population size matters. It's why flipping a coin once and declaring that a coin will always land tails up is not statistically valid.
  Of course, given the rest, that's the least of their problems.
3. Re:I'll save you some troubls by blueg3 · 2013-02-20 08:28 · Score: 1
  
  You actually pick a good example.
  Questions:
  What's the population size for "coin flips"?
  What's the error on a sample size of one?
4. Re:I'll save you some troubls by sjames · 2013-02-20 08:50 · Score: 1
  
  The question is not only the coin flips, but the coin. What if you just happen to pick an unbalanced coin?
  The correct question is what is the statistical significance of flipping one coin one time. The answer is zero. You don't even get to the point of computing error since it's larger than the sample.
5. Re:I'll save you some troubls by blueg3 · 2013-02-21 04:56 · Score: 1
  
  You don't even get to the point of computing error since it's larger than the sample.
  It's a population sample, so the error on a single flip is undefined.
  So, statistics correctly says that flipping a coin once is not valid. Population size doesn't matter, it's already true that a single sample doesn't do you any good, statistically. Incidentally, the population size for coin flips is infinite. Yet, you can get an excellent estimate for whether a coin is biased by testing it. Your sensitivity to how much bias you can measure is entirely determined by how many flips you perform. In practice, doing statistics on random samples models the population as infinite. Another way you can tell the population size doesn't matter -- only the sample size and the effect size.
6. Re:I'll save you some troubls by sjames · 2013-02-21 06:03 · Score: 1
  
  So just reading the tweets from one person in each state is enough? What if that one person happens to be a wealthy coke head or a high schooler with a bad case of angst?
7. Re:I'll save you some troubls by blueg3 · 2013-02-21 08:09 · Score: 1
  
  No. You seem to be applying some wildly incorrect, reductionist logic that if the total population size doesn't matter, then magically the sample size doesn't matter. The sample size is important. What's not important is how large the population that sample is drawn from. What dictates the sample size is how high you want your confidence and how large the effect size is.
  Let's say you're measuring the fraction of tweets containing at least one happy word for a geographical area. If, in reality, 50% of tweets from that area contain happy words, you don't need a very large sample size to accurately measure that. If, on the other hand, 0.1% of tweets contain happy words, you need a much larger sample size.
  Note that this is only really true for large populations -- which is most surveyed populations. For ludicrously small sample sizes, all statistics are bad, but then, statistics tells you that tiny sample sizes are very bad. So stop using that as an example.
  A handful of trivially-found references.
8. Re:I'll save you some troubls by sjames · 2013-02-21 10:50 · Score: 1
  
  Right, so if I read 10,000 tweets from the angst ridden teen who just had a bad breakup, it's just as valid as reading 100 tweets from 100 distinct individuals? I think not. Population matters.
  You seem to have stepped into a bucket here. Repeatedly denying the bucket's existence won't help.
9. Re:I'll save you some troubls by blueg3 · 2013-02-21 15:57 · Score: 1
  
  You're switching between topics randomly because, it seems, you understand nothing about statistics and are imagining scenarios from your gut.
  My example earlier was only to illustrate that total population size doesn't matter.
  What you're talking about now is sample bias. In your case, the result from the 10,000 tweets from the same person are highly correlated, giving you strong sample bias and weakening your sample. Whereas tweets from different people are less-correlated and have less bias.
  In neither case did the number of people in the area matter.
10. Re:I'll save you some troubls by sjames · 2013-02-21 16:14 · Score: 1
  
  If you think I switched topics, then you're either not paying attention or you don't know NEARLY as much as you think.
  Increasing the population protects from that particular form of bias (but not from selection bias). When the population is too small, your stats stand a good chance of being meaningless noise.
Re:Not Hawaii by AK+Marc · 2013-02-20 06:56 · Score: 1

Have you never seen anyone visit HI? Tourists may well prefer a short stay in HI to a long one in KS, resulting in that one person posting more positively from HI than KS. Repeat for all tourists and tell me if you see a pattern.

--
Learn to love Alaska
Let me guess by viperidaenz · 2013-02-20 07:13 · Score: 1

This "happy map" correlates with "twitter user-base map"?
Range of the report by arekin · 2013-02-20 07:14 · Score: 1

even though it is a 1-9 scale the range of this report is really 5.85 to about 6.15 (about .3). So really happy vs sad is really not a huge difference.

--
Disagreeing with you does not make me a troll.
1. Re:Range of the report by blueg3 · 2013-02-20 07:49 · Score: 1
  
  It's a completely arbitrary scale, so you have no idea how big a 0.3 difference is.
2. Re:Range of the report by arekin · 2013-02-20 17:46 · Score: 1
  
  It's a completely arbitrary scale, so you have no idea how big a 0.3 difference is.
  Indeed, but why make .3 difference on an already arbitrary 9 point scale? All things considered I'd say this is about the most useless report I've ever seen.
  
  --
  Disagreeing with you does not make me a troll.
Interesting geography by mu51c10rd · 2013-02-20 07:38 · Score: 1

So the happiest places are the Rocky Mountains, the northern New England states, and Hawaii? Glad I live in the Rockies...
Well of course you know... by Anarchduke · 2013-02-20 07:39 · Score: 1

The happiest place in the United States doesn't have Twitter.

--
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
Other data more interesting by Amorymeltzer · 2013-02-20 07:40 · Score: 1

Methodology aside, the state happiness levels are actually the most dull aspect of this. Far more interesting are the correlations to certain words, obesity, and especially the supplemental data on other traits. Not necessarily anything surprising but definitely more interesting.
Highest correlation with being happy? Being white.
Highest correlation for being sad? Being black.
The word "cafe" is correlated with percentage of the population having a Bachelor's degree.
"Cafe," "sushi," and "brewery" are the top food-related words correlating negatively with obesity.

--
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
Re:Easy control for tourism by desdinova+216 · 2013-02-20 07:53 · Score: 1

I keep the location turned off, you insensitive clod!
Re:Not enough resolution, not enough countries by SteveDorries · 2013-02-20 07:57 · Score: 1

We already know it isn't. It's the Most Magical Place on Earth, Disneyland is the Happiest Place on Earth.
That's a little conceited, don't you think? by dfenstrate · 2013-02-20 08:27 · Score: 1

Conservatives don't value freedom. During the Bush administration, we lost a ton of freedom, especially during the period where the GOP controlled everything. The only thing that temporarily arrested the slide was that Bush managed to piss off SCOTUS enough that they started to say no.
Conservatives value certain freedoms like the 2nd amendment, but are pretty hostile towards the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments.
And how's Obama doing with all that stuff? Seems to me he's continued all of Bush's most hated policies.

--
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
No, Hawaii's just full of desperate twit[terer]s by cellocgw · 2013-02-20 08:42 · Score: 1

I prefer to believe ( :-) ) that most of us in Massachusetts and NH and VT are so happy we don't even bother with something as pitiful as Twitter in the first place.
Maybe Hawaii has the happiest twits (or do I have to call them tweeters?). That doesn't mean the GenPop is happiest.

--
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Have you noticed that in the article... by __aailob1448 · 2013-02-20 09:01 · Score: 1

All the happiest cities are in locations where marijuana is legal. Coincidence?
Yeah, probably :)
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2013-02-20 09:19 · Score: 2

Comment removed based on user account deletion
To keep it simple by Grayhand · 2013-02-20 10:13 · Score: 1

Blue states happy, Red state unhappy. Kind of mirrors their politics. I plan to retire in Maine and I always found it laid back. Hard to be unhappy when you have a beer in hand and a lobster boiling for dinner. A northern version of Jimmie Buffet.
Interesting Overlay by TheUnFounded · 2013-02-20 11:01 · Score: 1

I don't think it's blue vs red (as other users have posted), but there are some definite trends. For example, compare to the map of the Post-Election Racist Tweets to see some interesting data: http://geocommons.com/maps/210024
lol by slashmydots · 2013-02-20 11:13 · Score: 1

Good thing they didn't get as geo-specific as just my company or they'd find the angriest hole of bitterness and hatred on the internet twitternet lol.
Island fever? by Futurepower(R) · 2013-02-20 14:05 · Score: 1

After weeks in Hawaii, I get island fever.
Re:Of course the south is sad by ChrisMaple · 2013-02-20 16:43 · Score: 1

1955 wants it's attitude back.

--
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Re:More people = sad people? by ChrisMaple · 2013-02-20 16:54 · Score: 1

That's what Sartre thought: "Hell is other people."

--
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Re:Of course the south is sad by thetoadwarrior · 2013-02-20 19:28 · Score: 1

1861 wants its flag back too.