This is the saddest we've been in more than a decade
If you've been using Twitter lately, or any social network for that matter, you might have noticed things have taken a decidedly grim turn. And with good reason. Be it the economy, job losses, the global leaders who seem to be competing for the title of most awful. There's a lot to be upset about.
A pair of researchers who have been studying Twitter to take the emotional pulse of the planet since 2008 have recently concluded, this is the saddest we've felt.
Sad face 😔
Chris Danforth and Peter Dodds, applied mathematicians at the University of Vermont in Burlington, built the 'hedonometer' in 2008 to study our moods. It looks at the words in a random sample of tweets each day and rates them according to how positive or negative they are.
In mid-March, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the Western Hemisphere, the tool charted a deep, sustained dip in the global mood. Then, the worldwide protests following the killing of George Floyd in May set off a second wave of negative sentiment on the platform unlike anything Danforth and Dodds have ever seen. But there is a silver lining to this giant grey cloud.
Out of the darkness, comes a hell of a lot of light 🌅
While the world is feeling very low at the moment, it's not the whole story. “It’s one thing to tell the world ‘this is the saddest week’,” says Desmond Patton, a social scientist at Columbia University in New York City. “But also in the saddest week, you have thousands and thousands of people who are now activated and moving towards equality and social justice.”
This mobilization, too, is captured in the hedonometer. The tweet volume over the past 2 weeks is nearly double the daily average from 2019. The strength and the duration of the signal are unique to this moment, he says. “Both the pandemic and these protests have been far more cohesive in terms of collective attention than anything we’ve ever seen.”
So while we all feel we're in dark days now, there are brigther ones just round the corner.
Ok, where can I learn more? 📚
- Check out the Hedonometer for yourself.
- We Feel Fine is one of our favourite visualistions of how we feel on any one day. It's a beautiful way to take a peek into the lives of others.
- If you're interested in how social media affects your mood, here's a great place to start.