I thought this was retarded at first. According to a NYT article in the Business section today, Facebook has developed a happiness index based on the number of times users use happy or sad words in their status updates. Please.
According to their findings, people are happiest on the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Halloween. People are happier on Fridays as compared to Mondays by roughly 9.7 percent. And on days when celebrities die, such as Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger, people are sad 
While superficial to me, there is more to the Facebook status that meets the eye… apparently. These studies are what psychologists and sociologists have been trying to collect for decades. An incredible amount of data has thus far been collected and can provide great detail into Facebook users’ lives. Scary.
I don’t know how much this reminds me of Big Brother, but it kinda does (no thanks to Selvin harping on it in class numerous times). Facebookers (totally just made that up) should know by now their information is being viewed and should act accordingly. I think it’s kinda neat, and if God forbid people kept private information to themselves, then there wouldn’t be that much complaining.
The potential for this amount of information is unknown. I’m not a social psychologist, so the analysis should be left to one, but we should all keep an eye on this fascinating prospect.
One Comment
Totally Big Brother, I agree.
Did you see that story about the lady who tweeted that she was having a miscarriage? :/