Facebook Analyzes Daylight Savings Data

Facebook analyzes Daylight Savings data and found there was a shift in mood according to it's users. 2 things I love in 1 post...Facebook & analytics...so sit back and get ready for an extremely interesting post! 

Facebook assembled a team of researchers and anonymized, aggregate user data by Mike Develin, Lada Adamic, and Bogdon State of the Facebook of the Facebook Data Science Team, and what was found across the nation was Facebook users were more sleepy after Daylight Savings clocks sprung forward recently. When compared to the previous Monday, Facebook users reported their mood as "feeling tired" 25% more the Monday after Daylight Savings than previously Furthermore, Facebook users also recorded their status mood to be Sleepy, up 28% from the previous Monday, and Exhausted, up 20%.

The Facebook researchers even went as far as to graph their user's tiredness on a national level to see the geographic differences on the Monday after DST.  According to the Facebook map, the darker the blue, the sleepier the people, as their increase of "feeling tired" increased the most. The really interesting kicker to this map is Arizona, who doesn't participate in Daylight Savings, and is virtually white! A very dark blue trend through the Midwest is prevalent, though Delaware was actually the sleepiest state, whose "feeling tired" statuses increased by a whopping 231%!

The Facebook Data Science Team also put together a word cloud of words used the most by people talking about the time change. Many of them pop off the page as negative, like dragging, sucks, hate and stupid, although a few positive words like sunshine, bright and loving are sprinkled into the smattering. Despite the negative sentiments that seem to plague many who weathered this year's DST, on a positive note, as the week went on, the negative sentiments were but a fraction and seemed to taper off almost completely. The use of the words tired, sleepy and exhausted were up only .1% by the Thursday after Daylight Savings, so apparently Facebookers settled in and settled down about the time change as the week went on.

Like us on Facebook here, where you're guaranteed to hear about our moods, thoughts and feelings...and maybe even a few marketing tips! Feel free to leave us your DST mood in the comments below.   :)

Facebook Emotions Go Viral

The University of California & Facebook have collaborated and research shows Facebook emotions go viral. According to this study which compared Facebook posts and weather patterns between January 2009 and March 2012, when your Facebook friends post positive sentiments, you are more likely to post positive sentiments as well. When your Facebook friends post negative sentiments, you are more likely to post negative sentiments. Doesn't this sound like the old adage that positivity breeds positivity and negativity breeds negativity? 

According to the lead researcher and a professor of medical genetics and political science at UCSD, they were literally trying to figure out, ”If it rains on your friend in Los Angeles, does it make you a little less happy in New York?” The researchers actually used a word classification system called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count to determine the results.

It was important for the researchers to note that it is entirely possible that the emotions go viral simply because positive people may have more positive friends, and negative people have more negative friends. Can you hear your mother’s words ringing in your head, “Birds of a feather flock together”? Next up, the researchers will be studying how specific emotions spread across social networks.

So, next time you decide to complain about how you want to punch winter in the face if you even hear the word snow again, consider your Facebook friends who might be negatively affected because of your rant. Put a ‘glass is half full’ spin on your status and tell how beautiful the snow is and what an amazing canvass God has to paint with. If you’re a negative Nelly, who doesn’t care if your negativity affects others, then just disregard that last statement and status on to bring the world down. Ugh!