A new study done by sociologists at Cornell University found that people all across the world have similar “emotional tones” in their tweets at different parts of the day, week, and even when the seasons change. The researchers based these findings on tweets from 84 different countries around the world. The tweets they studied were from more than two million people. What this study lead researchers to believe is that in general, people from all different parts of the world are feeling the same kind of moods in a somewhat simultaneous manner.
They think this means is that our moods are shared “underlying biological rhythm”. The article states that this “rhythm” can be in all different environments and cultures. These researches concluded that the pattern on Twitter is that people most noticeably tend to feel happy in the mornings and then right before bedtime. I think this is incredible that in 84 different countries people are all, for the most part, feeling the same way.
There is some criticism of the software used to determine this study. One of which is that when people tweet, sometime they are sarcastic and this software is not sophisticated enough to pick up on things like sarcasm. Another criticism (and a very valid one in my opinion) is what someone tweets, it may not necessarily be how they are feeling. Dan Gilbert who is a Harvard psychologist started in the article, “Tweets may tell us more about what the tweeter thinks the follower wants to hear than about what the tweeter is actually feeling”.
What is your opinion? Do you think the results should be disregarded because the software cannot pick up on things like sarcasm, or account for things like a misrepresentation of people’s true feelings?
I think there are definitely scientific issues with the study--but what I find interesting is the idea that social media can be used for research on a macro-perspective--something that would have required tremendous coordination of people and resources before has just become much, much easier. This is the first article I've seen suggesting this kind of approach to research. The methodology clearly needs fine-tuning, but the concept is brilliant and exciting.
ReplyDeleteThis is another study by Indiana University using Twitter to analyze social epidemics: "How do memes propagate through the twittershpere?" http://truthy.indiana.edu/about
ReplyDeleteA meme is a term defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." Truthy is a system developed, impelemented, and maintained by professors and students at Indiana University. It is aimed at the study of social epidemics and designed to analyze the propagation of information on Twitter by evalutating "thousands of tweets an hour to identify new and emerging bursts of activity around memes of various flavors" (http://truthy.indiana.edu/about ), and give the evaluations visualization.
I agree that this does need some fine-tuning, and that it is very exciting. I think that these studies will continue and hopefully improve. I love that a study was also done by Indiana University.
ReplyDeleteThat is crazy that they attempted to measure emotional tones in tweets. I don't know about others, but you can tell what kind of mood I'm in through my tweets. That quote by that Harvard psychologist brings up another interesting theory, do people tweet what they think others will want to hear? I can see there being many flaws in this type of research, but the fact they conducted a study like this really interests me.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that people do indeed tweet in a way in which they would want others to perceive them. I do agree that it is something interesting that they decided to research.
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