Facebook ‘Gross National Happiness’ App
The app analyses words in status updates like “awesome” or “tragic” to track changes in the collective emotional state of its users. When Facebook applied the methods to the USA last year, it found that happiness went up on holidays and down when celebrities like Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger passed away. While the results of the study weren’t surprising, the idea of using status updates to measure national happiness was a novel one. As you might have expected, residents of each country become happier on that country’s holidays and during big events — for example, Spain is happier on Saint Jordi’s Day and U.S. residents are happier around the time of the Super Bowl. Dips in happiness also correspond with major sports defeats. Even bigger dips accompanied natural disasters like earthquakes. There were also some cases of small increases of negativity accompanying big leaps in positivity. Not everyone has a great Christmas thanks to travel stress or family drama, so it’s no surprise that the negative comments go up a little bit at that time of the year too. Play with the app yourself at Facebook’s website to see what insights you can conjure up.
(via Mashable)
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