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If You're Happy and You Know It... Facebook Knows It, Too

by Lee Bains on October 6, 2009 at 07:30 AM

At this point, we're all aware that Facebook knows far too much about us. It can apparently be used to detect our sexual orientations and, well, just about anything else about us, really. Today, though, the reigning champion of social networking has begun peering not only into our lives, but into our very hearts.

Under the title 'How Happy Are We?,' Facebook intern and Ph.D. student Adam Kramer today unveiled the 'Gross National Happiness Index' in the Facebook Blog. Having tracked key words in U.S. users' status updates over the past two years, Facebook analysts have determined Facebookers' collectively happiest and saddest days. Far and away, the four happiest days were the Thanksgivings and Christmases of both years, while the fifth happiest was Easter of 2008, seeing a happiness rating of 12. Interestingly, that's a significant leap from the prior Easter, which only saw a rating of 4. Could it be that the day celebrating Jesus's victory over death more fully resonated with believers in what was, for many, a time of financial fear and strife?

The two saddest days, on the other hand, had to do with the recent rash of celebrity deaths. Taking the deepest plunge, January 22nd, 2008 was the day of Heath Ledger's death and the Asian stock market's significant tumble. Second saddest was the day Michael Jackson died: June 25th, 2009. We find it heartening that our happiest days seem to be concerned with love for God, family, and country, and that our sadness tends to spring from sympathy for others. That's at least one piece of evidence to suggest that our decreasingly human modes of communication haven't made us any less human. [From: Facebook Blog, via cnet]

Tags: facebook, gross national happiness index, GrossNationalHappinessIndex, happy, psychology, sad, social networking, SocialNetworking, top

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