Facebook has revealed the United States “Gross National Happiness,” the results of a study on the collective mood of Facebook users. Facebook “data scientists” started a project earlier in the year to measure the overall mood of people from the US on the social network, based on what they said in status updates.
The measurements come from the numbers of “positive” and “negative” words used in updates. It is unclear what words are considered positive and which ones are taken into account as negative.
“When people in their status updates use more positive words—or fewer negative words—then that day as a whole is counted as happier than usual,” says Adam D. I. Kramer, a Ph.D. student in social psychology at the University of Oregon and an intern on Facebook’s data team.
Obviously the entire thing is flawed if you’re looking for an accurate depiction of how Facebook users actually feel from day to day. For one, many users no doubt exercise some restraint when they feel disgusted about something and don’t choose to post their true feelings online. People may also skip an update when they’re at their happiest. In other words, people are not likely posting an update every time they experience a feeling (although it may seem that way sometimes). Things like sarcasm and slang also must come into play.
That said, it is still an interesting study to look at because regardless of any variables not being taken into account there are still appropriate spikes at key events. For example, the days of celebrity deaths like those of Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson indicated some of the lowest points of happiness, and holidays like Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July represented spikes in happiness.
Between clear holidays and major events, there seems to be a fairly consistent zig zag pattern of mild happiness/distress. It’s almost as if people’s feelings fluctuate rapidly.
