Facebook happiness index tracks US mood
Facebook used status updates to measure collective happiness
Facebook has been tracking the mood of people in the US using a Gross National Happiness index.
The social networking site found that the overall happiness of the nation peaked at predictable points during the year, such as Christmas, New Year and Thanksgiving.
Other notable dates of collective jubilance included Wednesday 5th November – the day America was celebrating the election of Barack Obama – which was more than twice as happy as the average Wednesday.
Facebook compiled the index by monitoring the status comments users post to tell the world how they are feeling at a given point in time.
By measuring the amount of positive and negative words used in these musings, the site was able to identify collective "happy days".
Adam Kramer, a member of Facebook's data team, said: "Every day, through Facebook status updates, people share how they feel with those who matter most in their lives. These updates are tiny windows into how people are doing."
The happiness index also highlighted days of collective melancholy, including the least happy day - 22nd January 2008 - when the Asian stock market crashed and Heath Ledger died suddenly.
Facebook users will soon be able to update their status even more often as the application is set to launch on games console Xbox 360 this month.
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Comments
This is a bit creepy!
big brother is watching you!
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