Happy and You Know It? So Are Millions on Twitter | Hacker News Reader

Happy and You Know It? So Are Millions on Twitter

nytimes.com

22 pointsflowseeker9 comments

Interesting, but this is a really naive (and outdated) NLP technique for analyzing sentiment. The researchers are injecting an enormous amount of bias by choosing apriori what words are considered positive and negative - they'll also miss bad spellings, abbrevs, sarcasm, etc. I worked for a company doing similar analyses (but with different techniques), and I've heard of margins of error as bad as 40% for this type of analysis. You might be better off flipping a coin.

Yet, if it was coin-flipping, shouln'td we get wildly different results for each of the 7 days, since they were assumingly analyzed separately?

When a statistical experiment is flawed, anything goes.

Flawed results can correlate with flawed results. If we measure Monday incorrectly, and we have the same flaw in how we measure Tuesday, is it a surprise that the results for both days might look similar? All we've proven is that people use similar words at similar times of days - not necessarily anything about their sentiment or emotion.

The coin flipping comment is a joke. These are obviously not random results. But that doesn't mean they're accurate or meaningful, either.

Great comment. I just wanted to add that "not random" != "interesting".

The quote at the end sums up the accuracy of this study:

“I suspect that if you counted the good and bad words people said during intercourse, you’d mistakenly conclude that they were having an awful time,” Dr. Gilbert said.

Everytime I see someone post a "happy" update in Facebook, I get the suspicion he/she is really masking some discontent instead, or just wants everyone to feel jealous. Noone is really truly happy, right?

> No one is really truly happy, right?

"Happiness" is multidimensional, so even describing it with one word is over-simplistic. Our minds are very complex; they have different levels of consciousness, intelligence, and perceptions at the same time. So one way I would describe "happiness" is to break it down like this:

* Are you free from physical pain or discomfort?

* Are your basic physical needs met (food, clothing, shelter, safety)?

* Are you free of negative emotional states (fear, anger, sadness) and experiencing at least one positive emotional state (contentedness, excitement, laughter)?

* Think about the "stories" of your life--what is currently happening to you and the goals you are following. Do you anticipate happy endings?

* How do you feel about the relationship with the world around you? Do you fundamentally think you are a good person? Do you fundamentally think the universe is a good, safe place? Do you feel like your connection with the world around you is meaningful?

If you are fulfilled in all of these areas, you'll be and feel truly happy. I've had times like that. So yes, it's possible for people to be truly happy.

On the flip side, only one of those things have to be out of whack for us to feel unhappy, so that's why sometimes happiness can seem so elusive.

So that's my 2 cents. And am I happy at the moment? No. :)

1) Yes I am free from physical pain 2) Yes, for the most part.. minus one, starts with s, ends with x. 3) I experience negative emotions regularly. 4) Yes I anticipate a couple of happy ending. 5) I think world is cruel inhumane place

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