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Twitter Data Says New York Is Always Cranky
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 2, 2011
Modified Jan 2, 2011
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 2, 2011
Modified Jan 2, 2011
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For the past three years, researchers from Harvard and Northeastern have been monitoring Twitter, sorting 300 million updates by location and attitude to create a cartogram of the country's moods. And it turns out that no matter what time of day it is, Twittering New Yorkers are always in a bad mood. An animated map (below) shows the number of Twitter updates through an average week, with states increasing in size based on the proportional number of updates in the area. They also change color based on happiness levels. New York tends to stay a nice Burnt Sienna, with a brief spike to Mustard in the mornings.
The study showed that Americans tend to be happier in the early morning or late evening, and are in the best moods on Sunday mornings. Everyone seems pissed on Thursday nights. However, just 8% of American adults who use the Internet use Twitter. Perhaps the rest of the state is in a better mood because they're out enjoying themselves instead of updating Twitter.
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Jaya Saxena
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