People around the world get up happy but become grumpier as the day wears on, according to a study of 'Twitter' messages......
People around the world get up happy but become grumpier as the day wears on, according to a study of 'Twitter' messages.
Researchers analysed more than 509 million posts from 2.4 million users of the micro-blogging website to study trends in
their moods over a two-year period. They found that outlook of people varies greatly depending on the time of day, the day
of the week and whether the days are getting longer or shorter.
In the morning people wake up full of optimism, but it declines during the day and only recovers after 6 PM when the
stresses of work are forgotten. Negative emotions like anger, distress and guilt are lowest at the start of the day but
continue to build until we go to bed, the study revealed.
Twitter accounts from 84 different countries across the globe showed the same pattern despite having significant cultural
and geographical differences, 'The Daily Telegraph' newspaper reported.
Overall British Twitter users were more optimistic than those in France and Portugal, but less than people in the USA and
Australia, scoring slightly below average on a global scale, the findings showed.
On weekends people were generally more positive but the morning surge of optimism arrived two hours later because people
enjoyed a lie-in. Writing in the 'Science' journal, Scott Golder and Prof Michael Macy of Cornell University in America
said the positive effects of sleep, along with our natural behavioural cycle known as circadian rhythm, could explain the
trend.
They used a text analysis computer program to scour their sample of Twitter messages, or Tweets, to look for words which
suggested how the writer was feeling.
Some messages expressed positive feelings such as enthusiasm, delight, activeness and alertness, while others indicated
negative emotions like distress, fear, anger, guilt and disgust.
Positive language accounted for about 6% of all words used at the highest point but dropped to 5% during working hours
while negative messages rose slowly throughout the day.
The researchers also found that people had a brighter outlook when days were lengthening towards the summer solstice, and
this fell away as daylight hours grew shorter.
People around the world get up happy but become grumpier as the day wears on, according to a study of 'Twitter' messages.
Researchers analysed more than 509 million posts from 2.4 million users of the micro-blogging website to study trends in
their moods over a two-year period. They found that outlook of people varies greatly depending on the time of day, the day
of the week and whether the days are getting longer or shorter.
In the morning people wake up full of optimism, but it declines during the day and only recovers after 6 PM when the
stresses of work are forgotten. Negative emotions like anger, distress and guilt are lowest at the start of the day but
continue to build until we go to bed, the study revealed.
Twitter accounts from 84 different countries across the globe showed the same pattern despite having significant cultural
and geographical differences, 'The Daily Telegraph' newspaper reported.
Overall British Twitter users were more optimistic than those in France and Portugal, but less than people in the USA and
Australia, scoring slightly below average on a global scale, the findings showed.
On weekends people were generally more positive but the morning surge of optimism arrived two hours later because people
enjoyed a lie-in. Writing in the 'Science' journal, Scott Golder and Prof Michael Macy of Cornell University in America
said the positive effects of sleep, along with our natural behavioural cycle known as circadian rhythm, could explain the
trend.
They used a text analysis computer program to scour their sample of Twitter messages, or Tweets, to look for words which
suggested how the writer was feeling.
Some messages expressed positive feelings such as enthusiasm, delight, activeness and alertness, while others indicated
negative emotions like distress, fear, anger, guilt and disgust.
Positive language accounted for about 6% of all words used at the highest point but dropped to 5% during working hours
while negative messages rose slowly throughout the day.
The researchers also found that people had a brighter outlook when days were lengthening towards the summer solstice, and
this fell away as daylight hours grew shorter.
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