Comments on: America The Mood Ring

By: Random comment

Random comment — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:12:26 +0000

anyone else notice Washington D.C. is constantly unhappy?

By: lives in virginia

lives in virginia — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:22:59 +0000

you forgot Virginia

By: billy

billy — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:54:58 +0000

Well if ur from indiana you should know the only thing to do here is complain about how boring it is here lol

By: Di

Di — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:47:58 +0000

Why you so down, Indiana?

By: aeryn

aeryn — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:43:33 +0000

apparently MN (and much of the midwest) is an unhappy place.

By: 3countylaugh

3countylaugh — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:42:55 +0000

Washington State, never happy never angry… just blah… at least it’s the truth *sigh* back to working in the rain, as usual.

By: gracelet

gracelet — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:51:13 +0000

Hahaa. I’m a texan, and this is hysterically true.
We’re happy in the wee hours of the morning and from 8 to midnight.
It’s too damn hot to be happy from 9 to 6.(:

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:27:40 +0000

Well, Delaware always seems chipper.

By: Jaz

Jaz — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:36:40 +0000

Wow thats not right, I mean NY iz not always pissed, try doing this on a day of a Yankees game

By: Facepalm

Facepalm — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:19:20 +0000

Yes, yes you would! It effing sucks here! In my home town we had “Chicken Parades”(People dress us like chickens and ride floats through F*CKING MAIN STREET and give kids candy!!!!) because the main attraction is the Chicken Plants where the state’s Fried Chicken is made, Walmart, and the classic “The Civil War isn’t over yet and the Mexicans are stealing our chicken plant jobs!!!” racist trolls. So yeah, fun childhood… T_T

By: Schlangemann

Schlangemann — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:11:31 +0000

Hey, at least us eastern states don’t schedule 2 hour conference calls to start when you central and western states usually leave work…

I’m lookin’ at you, California…

By: McBobson

McBobson — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:30:35 +0000

Wow… New Jersians sure are morning people.

By: Bobjesus

Bobjesus — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:33:42 +0000

The only two states that can be said as “constantly happy” on this map is Florida and California. There are moderate exceptions in Delaware and Kentucky. When you think about it, there’s not ~too~ much Florida and California, at least Culturewise, really don’t have in common. Both states have a large Spanish-Speaking Immigrant population, both states are known for their beaches, and both states experience year-round good weather. Both states have a very large population – California and Florida are 1st and 4th respectively – and both states have a remarkably high amount of Beta World Cities with 1 major city. (Miami and Los Angeles). Their Geography and Political Views are the only thing that radically differ (California is relatively mountainous, and has deserts and is majority democratic, Florida is relatively flat, humid, with a swampy inland and leaning slightly to Republican side).

What I do NOT get is why Delaware and Kentucky are “on and off” happy. Can someone from either of those two states please give an adequate explanation to me?

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:19:46 +0000

I guess the people that are most likely to tweet something first thing in the morning are going to say something like, “Coffee is so good, I love it,” which probably triggers the “happy” words on Harvard’s list.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:17:22 +0000

And the unhappiest California gets is around rush-hour time.

By: robby

robby — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:17:08 +0000

Holy crap Indiana (my home) didnt turn green once. we must be some mad mofos

By: Le Q

Le Q — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:54:16 +0000

Well, some words have a more positive connotation than others (e.g. “scent” has more of a positive connotation than “stench.”) All that one would have to do is give these words a positive or negative value corresponding to the degree of the connotation of the word, then allow a computer to look through all of the entries on twitter for data, perhaps setting aside some words that were not inputted at the start (like “Blararghargh”) and asking the user later.

The biggest issue I can see with that is that the computer would not catch sarcasm, and that issue might be eliminated with pattern-matching, i.e. someone follows up their sad post with a (or similar) then it could be considered happy… or something.

By: cherokeekid

cherokeekid — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:30:14 +0000

As a fellow virginian, I noticed that too. I see that as one of two things, either Virginia is a very unhappy state or we have few people twittering and those people are very sad people.

I vote for the first scenario.

By: The_Underscore

The_Underscore — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:38:13 +0000

Can you really measure happiness by evaluating the words used on twitter?

By: Schmidty

Schmidty — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:06:56 +0000

Why was the entirety of America pissed off at 3 PM? Well, at least New Englanders are slightly less pissy than the rest of the country besides CA and FL.

By: J

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:23:24 +0000

I love how Indiana (my state) stayed red most of the time and was always distinguishable from its neighboring states due to its unhappier coloring.

By: unna

unna — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:23:49 +0000

lol me too, i thought i was happy

By: DevilBunnie

DevilBunnie — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:42:47 +0000

It seems that New Mexico doesn’t use twitter at all .. or exist on this map. Interesting to know. I bet it’s the happiest of all states for being mostly excluded!

By: John M

John M — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:58:40 +0000

First, the sample is Twitter users. It’s not the pulse of the nation, it’s the pulse of people who Tweet, which is still a vast minority of the US population.

Second, more to the point of how flawed any conclusions drawn from this are, I would submit that those people who are less likely to use Twitter are generally happier people anyway.

Most busy people I know are happy, and most of those happy, busy people have no time for twitter. Most barely check their e-mails and still have cell phones with nothing but a 10 key, if that. I’d like to see a study that quantifies the happiness-technology correlation (if it exists), but that requires researchers that get off their a**es and away from the computers.

No, the irony of this post is not lost on me.

By: amaddie

amaddie — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:43:40 +0000

why is wisconsin never happy?

By: Roflcoptor Pilot

Roflcoptor Pilot — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:42:55 +0000

Wisconsin… I am dissapoint.

By: Chloe

Chloe — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:59:35 +0000

I think Iowa and the other mid-west states are dark red the entire time. With maybe the exception of missouri and illinois…lol. Maybe Midwesterners only tweet about complaints. Probably because they have to drive for like 30 minutes to get to work and people like to cut others off or drive like an old grandma….. lol idk.

By: jC from Tn

jC from Tn — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:38:54 +0000

I think there is a correlation to how f#@&ing hot it is in the middle of the country.

By: Sarcastic Moron

Sarcastic Moron — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:49:47 +0000

Maybe the Midwest is pissed off because of all the flooding.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:25:45 +0000

I don’t agree. I’m by no means a morning person, but mornings are full of potential. You haven’t gone to work yet, and therefore you haven’t been bombarded by the fifty things that went wrong overnight (as an example).

By: ruth

ruth — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:15:36 +0000

I don’t get it – why would people be happy first thing in the morning? That’s the WORST time of day! If anything you get happier as the day goes on and by evening its wayhey! The same as Monday to Friday really…

By: RDF109

RDF109 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:18:46 +0000

Working those coal mines must suck.

By: RDF109

RDF109 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:17:22 +0000

You would be too if all the manufacturing jobs went to China.

By: njdss4

njdss4 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:53:55 +0000

I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but doesn’t California have the most *cough* mary-j available in it? Mellows people out and it’s semi-legal.

Also, notice that New York is always angry. It gets to almost neutral, then goes immediately back to really unhappy. Are most of these reports coming from NYC, or is it split between the whole state?

By: nativefloridian

nativefloridian — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:29:20 +0000

Y’know, as insane as florida is, it seems to be a happy insane.

By: Malake256

Malake256 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:21:35 +0000

Dang I lives in california, and im always so depressed, i wonder wat id be like if i lived in freaking kentucky or whatever :]

By: buh

buh — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:29:47 +0000

Why is Delaware so happy? Is there something in the water? Every other state in the area is red most of the time.

By: josh

josh — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:57:31 +0000

west virginia is always unhappy. if i lived there, i would be too.

By: Wut

Wut — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:18:37 +0000

I love how the midwest is pretty much always pissed off.

By: Wut

Wut — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:17:23 +0000

…what?

I do have to agree with you however, your comment is definitely biased. Incoherently so, but biased.

By: panda

panda — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:07:09 +0000

Haha my home state was happier than I thought it would be! And California’s always too freakin’ happy…maybe I don’t want to go there….

By: TWM

TWM — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:39:24 +0000

It would be more accurate if it graphed vs local time instead of always being on EST. I think if it represented the mood at the same time of day across the map you could better identify patterns. But maybe that wasn’t what Harvard wanted to do.

By: teachj

teachj — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:27:19 +0000

Texans are happy after work 5pm-midnight and before it really gets going 5am-9am. They hate work time 9am-5pm and the middle of the night is for Texas haters too.

By: sdk

sdk — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:00:57 +0000

This was supremely interesting.

By: A Leash

A Leash — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:00:17 +0000

Love that Maine is pretty much always pissed off. Happiest we get is at around 7:00 in the morning, and even then it’s not “happy.”

By: Matt Orley

Matt Orley — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:43:12 +0000

apparently ppl in california have lots of time to ‘like, express how good it feels to be in california’ like. WHere as those of us out East are tweeting things like “Hey, I sold something today!” and sold infers capitalism infers sadness? that’s my take…. biased? naaaaaaaaa

By: Warppig

Warppig — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:47:45 +0000

So, if you live in that central band, you’re always miserable?

By: Lol they see me confused

Lol they see me confused — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:14:30 +0000

I don’t get it

By: matchbook confucious

matchbook confucious — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:55:13 +0000

I can explain why the middle states hate lunchtime. It’s because we’re doing all the work for people who come back from lunch with ideas in the eastern states. Same goes for the cali side to us. Not only does shit roll downhill, it follows the sun.

By: Guppy, Lord of Sockyland

Guppy, Lord of Sockyland — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:26:15 +0000

sigh. virginia is like, constantly unhappy. im moving.