4 ms·

My takeaway is that (ignoring holidays) negative events make Twitter more unhappy than positive events make it happy. Yet another reason I'm not on Twitter!

meowkit 6y ago
That’s a human thing, not a twitter thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias
- karaterobot 6y ago
  Agreed. I find that Twitter (et al.) just amplify existing human biases and psychological effects like that. To totally misquote Steve Jobs, social media is like a bicycle for feeling bad.
  - dmos62 6y ago
    > To totally misquote Steve Jobs, social media is like a bicycle for feeling bad. I like that. What's the actual quote? Edit: it's probably this: > …the computer is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.
    - karaterobot 6y ago
      That's the one!
JamilD 6y ago
There's a weird methodology quirk here. Looking at the data, words like "violence" seem to directly decrease the overall happiness score. Which is weird, because use of that word doesn't necessarily indicate that someone is feeling less happy. Mentioning negative events therefore seems to directly decrease the happiness score, so a conclusion like yours is almost tautological -- when a negative event happens, people talk about it, so the algorithm infers that people are unhappy.
- dmos62 6y ago
  I think that talking about upsetting things does steer conversations in upsetting ways. A lot of things happen all the time. The choice of what one talks about is informative. You can frame an event in both negative and positive ways. If you mention violence, but don't mention togetherness, solidarity, courage (or some other positive words), that's probably a negative framing. What's more, it's misguiding to say that people talk about things that happen. People talk about some of the things that happen. Media plays a big role in the selection. People also tend to adopt framings. Which is to say that people's happiness does depend on what's being talked about, if we agree that happiness is the positivity of thoughts held.
chadcmulligan 6y ago
I find twitter and Facebook very good ways to identify the family and friends with narcissistic tendencies, they're always showing how good things are.

meowkit 6y ago

That’s a human thing, not a twitter thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias

karaterobot 6y ago
Agreed. I find that Twitter (et al.) just amplify existing human biases and psychological effects like that. To totally misquote Steve Jobs, social media is like a bicycle for feeling bad.
- dmos62 6y ago
  > To totally misquote Steve Jobs, social media is like a bicycle for feeling bad. I like that. What's the actual quote? Edit: it's probably this: > …the computer is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.
  - karaterobot 6y ago
    That's the one!

JamilD 6y ago

There's a weird methodology quirk here. Looking at the data, words like "violence" seem to directly decrease the overall happiness score. Which is weird, because use of that word doesn't necessarily indicate that someone is feeling less happy. Mentioning negative events therefore seems to directly decrease the happiness score, so a conclusion like yours is almost tautological -- when a negative event happens, people talk about it, so the algorithm infers that people are unhappy.

dmos62 6y ago
I think that talking about upsetting things does steer conversations in upsetting ways. A lot of things happen all the time. The choice of what one talks about is informative. You can frame an event in both negative and positive ways. If you mention violence, but don't mention togetherness, solidarity, courage (or some other positive words), that's probably a negative framing. What's more, it's misguiding to say that people talk about things that happen. People talk about some of the things that happen. Media plays a big role in the selection. People also tend to adopt framings. Which is to say that people's happiness does depend on what's being talked about, if we agree that happiness is the positivity of thoughts held.

chadcmulligan 6y ago

I find twitter and Facebook very good ways to identify the family and friends with narcissistic tendencies, they're always showing how good things are.