Should I be happy today? October 12, 2009

Facebook has unveiled a new feature which can tell us over time the moods of the US population on the social networking sites, just by monitoring positive and negative keywords used in users’ status updates.

From the official app page:

Every day, millions of people share how they feel with the people who matter the most in their lives through status updates on Facebook. These updates are tiny windows into how people are doing. They’re brief, to the point and descriptive of what’s going on this week, today or right now. Grouped together, these updates are indicative of how we are collectively feeling. Measuring how well-off, happy or satisfied with life the citizens of a nation are is part of the Gross National Happiness movement. When people in their status updates use more positive words–or fewer negative words–then that day as a whole is counted as happier than usual.

Unsurprisingly, people are generally happier on national holidays like Christmas, Halloween and Easter. The thing that probably shocks me most from this graph is that Americans are happier on Thanksgiving than they are on Christmas. Really makes me feel like I’m missing out on something.

[Image: New York Times]