Can a 140-character post online say enough about someone? The answer is yes, according to new research claiming to be the first to tap the massive data from social media sites for an insight into people's everyday situations.
Published in the journal PLOS One, the study from researchers out of Florida Atlantic University investigated over 20 million tweets to dig into the psychological experiences of people over a two-week period.
According to the findings of the study authored by psychology professor Dr. Ryne Sherman and Ph.D. student David Serfass, there were large differences in experiences based on gender and time of the week, although the situations of those in urban and rural places were mostly psychologically similar.
"There are few compilations of data on human thought, behavior, and emotions this vast," said Serfass of Twitter, calling it an outstanding medium for research endeavors of that kind.
The team collected 5,000 tweets and rated each on eight core situation dimensions. They then used the computer tool Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) for quantifying the words used in Twitter posts into psychological and lexical groups.
People in situations marked by "duty" surfaced more inclined to use words "work" and "job," while those in adversarial situations tended to post swear words. The researchers used these links to forecast other situations, applying their scoring algorithm to the tweets and mapping out Americans' situational experiences across day and time and in rural versus urban locations.
The results: people felt more negativity in the work week and more positivity on weekends. Higher levels of duty also manifested during the 9-to-5 workdays, while more sociality showed at night.
On the gender front, women had increased levels of mating and emotions, whether positive or negative, compared to men.
Dr. Sherman said social media can offer a more intimate look into the human experience. "Think about what we can learn from situations surrounding holidays, festivals, sporting events, political upheavals, and even natural disasters," he said of using these methods.
A separate study from a team at University of Pennsylvania found in October that Twitter users' behaviors correlated with their income levels. High earners used the social site for spreading information and maintained more followers, while those with lower incomes used Twitter more socially, including for sharing of links.
Based on the analysis, which covered over 10 million posts of more than 5,000 public profiles, those earning 45,000 pounds (about $69,000) at an average had far more followers in Twitter than people making much less. The reasons were unclear, but other findings included more stand-out feelings of fear and anger in high-earners' tweets.
Twitter has amassed about 271 million users responsible for over 500 million tweets every day.
Photo: Rosaura Ochoa | Flickr
