Twitter Study: Good Moods Peak In Early Morning & Late At Night
Taken from here.
Twitter may get maligned as a place for trading political barbs, Miley Cyrus gossip and inane commentary on one’s latest lunch, but it’s turning into quite the treasure trove of information for sociologists. Cornell University researchers consulted the social network to look for large-scale patterns of happiness and other moods; they found people around the globe tend to wake up happy, go through a down-period during the day and resume their good moods in the evenings.
In the study, researchers analyzed English-language tweets from 2.4 million users in 84 countries (more than 500 million tweets in all), sent over a two-year period. A computer program searched for words indicating positive and negative moods, and then the researchers analyzed the data. Overall, positive attitudes peaked early in the morning and again near midnight. They dipped midmorning, and continued that decline until early evening, when the became more positive again.
Makes sense, right? We wake up happy, we get down during the work day and we perk up once we’re ‘free’ again. But even assuming everyone’s on the same 9 to 5-ish schedule (which is a pretty big assumption to make), the work-makes-us-unhappy theory still doesn’t hold up. Yes, the researchers did find more positive tweeting done on weekends. But even on weekends, happy tweets peaked in the morning (albeit slightly later; Saturday’s are for sleeping in!) and slumped midday.
Scott Golder, a Cornell doctoral student who worked on the study, said the pattern is more likely due to “something that’s biological or sleep-based … The difference between weekdays and weekends has to do with the average mood, which is higher on the weekends than the weekdays, but the shape was the same every day. Even in the face of different social and cultural demands, the results are consistent across days.”
Hmmm … I feel like there are lots of ways this information could be useful. Need to have a difficult conversation with your boss or boyfriend? Try to do it earlier in the day—or much, much later (though your boss might not appreciate your attempt at a midnight chat). Have an unpleasant task to undertake? Don’t do it midday, when you’re biologically predisposed to be grumpier and grumblier anyway.
Golder and lead researcher Michael Macy, a Cornell sociology professor, also looked at how sunlight may factor into people’s moods. Interestingly, they found it’s not necessarily how much daylight folks are getting that determine’s moods, but the relative amount of daylight—”whether the days are getting longer or shorter.” Does that mean fall, when days get increasingly shorter, could actually be worse for seasonal affective disorder than, say, February, when we’re used to seeing less daylight?
If you want to have your own fun with twitter research, you can visit http://timeu.se/ and enter keywords to to see how prevalent they are at different times of day (the patterns for “gym,” and “sex” are interesting …).
Related posts:
Twitter may get maligned as a place for trading political barbs, Miley Cyrus gossip and inane commentary on one’s latest lunch, but it’s turning into quite the treasure trove of information for sociologists. Cornell University researchers consulted the social network to look for large-scale patterns of happiness and other moods; they found people around the globe tend to wake up happy, go through a down-period during the day and resume their good moods in the evenings.
In the study, researchers analyzed English-language tweets from 2.4 million users in 84 countries (more than 500 million tweets in all), sent over a two-year period. A computer program searched for words indicating positive and negative moods, and then the researchers analyzed the data. Overall, positive attitudes peaked early in the morning and again near midnight. They dipped midmorning, and continued that decline until early evening, when the became more positive again.
Makes sense, right? We wake up happy, we get down during the work day and we perk up once we’re ‘free’ again. But even assuming everyone’s on the same 9 to 5-ish schedule (which is a pretty big assumption to make), the work-makes-us-unhappy theory still doesn’t hold up. Yes, the researchers did find more positive tweeting done on weekends. But even on weekends, happy tweets peaked in the morning (albeit slightly later; Saturday’s are for sleeping in!) and slumped midday.
Scott Golder, a Cornell doctoral student who worked on the study, said the pattern is more likely due to “something that’s biological or sleep-based … The difference between weekdays and weekends has to do with the average mood, which is higher on the weekends than the weekdays, but the shape was the same every day. Even in the face of different social and cultural demands, the results are consistent across days.”
Hmmm … I feel like there are lots of ways this information could be useful. Need to have a difficult conversation with your boss or boyfriend? Try to do it earlier in the day—or much, much later (though your boss might not appreciate your attempt at a midnight chat). Have an unpleasant task to undertake? Don’t do it midday, when you’re biologically predisposed to be grumpier and grumblier anyway.
Golder and lead researcher Michael Macy, a Cornell sociology professor, also looked at how sunlight may factor into people’s moods. Interestingly, they found it’s not necessarily how much daylight folks are getting that determine’s moods, but the relative amount of daylight—”whether the days are getting longer or shorter.” Does that mean fall, when days get increasingly shorter, could actually be worse for seasonal affective disorder than, say, February, when we’re used to seeing less daylight?
If you want to have your own fun with twitter research, you can visit http://timeu.se/ and enter keywords to to see how prevalent they are at different times of day (the patterns for “gym,” and “sex” are interesting …).
Related posts:
- Track Your Happiness: iPhone App Proves Sex and Concentration Boost Our Moods
- Test-Driving Happiness Advice: The New Gimmick?
- Happiness Researchers Say Don’t Just Be Satisfied—Flourish
- Do You Suffer From Depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder?
- Six Quick Facts About Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
0 comments: