Twitter's 140-character format may limit how much users can reveal about themselves, but, according to a group of computer scientists from Northeastern University, our casual tweets may contain enough information to reveal how we're
truly feeling. Between 2006 and 2009, a team of researchers, led by Dr. Alan Mislove, analyzed all public posts to Twitter, looking for key, mood-indicating words. Using a ranking system called 'Affective Norms for English Words,' the scientists
calculated scores for each publicly tweeting user, and determined their overall moods. Positive words -- like "diamond", "love" and "paradise" -- receive positive points, while 'funeral,' 'rape,' 'suicide' and any other negative words are counted as poor scores.
The study, which restricted its scope to U.S. users only, confirmed the obvious by concluding that tweeters on the West Coast tended to be "happier" than those on the East. The report also claims that American Twitter users, overall, tend to be happiest on Sunday, and saddest on Thursday evenings. "The visualizations are amazing and I think it is absolutely fascinating to see the nation's mood vary in near-real time," says Johan Bollen of Indiana University.
Read more →