West Coast Happier Than the East Coast

On The Huffington Post, David Vines and Bianca Bosker described the results of a study on Twitter about our moods as Americans. They write:

“Researchers from the Northeastern University College of Computer and Information Sciences and Harvard Medical School have developed an innovative way of tracking the nation’s mood using tweets.

Their study, “Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day Inferred from Twitter”, scanned over 300 million tweets, sent between September 2006 and August 2009, for emotionally charged language, then developed color-coded cartograms showing the mood of each state over the course of the day (the redder the color of the state the worse the mood, the greener the happier it is).

A few highlights from their findings:

  • The “early morning and late evening” have the “highest level of happiness.”
  • The West coast is “significantly happier” than the East coast
  • Weekends are “much happier” than weekdays.”

Take a look at the Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter:

Do you think people are happier on the West Coast than on the East Coast?  Or do we simply extrovert our happiness more?

Some of My Favorite Recent Tweets

Discovered that Chuck Norris doesn’t need Twitter. He’s already following you. (Via @HankFortener)

“There are only 2 things I can’t stand… People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures & the Dutch.” – Nigel Powers

Heard Debbie refer to “Kirk Johnson” as the Lakers coach. I reminded her that his name is actually “Phil Jackson.” So close! 🙂

Debbie’s so bad with details. She said: “Caleb let the hat out of the box.” She meant to say: “Caleb let the cat out of the bag.” So cute!

Today’s successes can lead to tomorrow’s failures. – theme of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Harvard prof. Christensen

“Pedro offers you his protection.” – Napolean Dynamite

Heard Trevi say: “I want to chit chat, but I don’t know what to say.” After we laughed, she said: “Seriously. What should I say?”

New blog post: David Letterman Meets The Batting Stance Guy http://bit.ly/2wLgah

Stephen Colbert to Tom Hanks: “Since u are a fake WWII & Vietnam War vet, I have tremendous imaginary respect for you.”

Trevi asked when I return from work. I told her 6:30pm which is in 11 hrs. She then asked: “How many Spongebob shows is that?” It’s 22. 🙂