Facebook statuses reveal happiness--CNN 臉書狀態透露幸福與否

Facebook statuses reveal happiness
By Samuel Axon
May 6, 2010 -- Updated 2029 GMT (0429 HKT)


Facebook has extended its "Gross National Happiness" prototype app to 18 new countries. The app analyzes words in status updates like "awesome" or "tragic" to track changes in the collective emotional state of its users.
非死不可已擴大其"國家幸福總值"原型程式至十八個新國家。此程式分析狀態更新字，像是"棒極了"或"不幸的"，以追蹤使用者的集體情緒意識的改變。

When Facebook applied the methods to its U.S. userbase last year, it found that happiness went way up on holidays and way down when celebrities like Michael Jackson or Heath Ledger passed away. While the results of the study weren't surprising, the idea of using status updates to measure national happiness was a novel one.當臉書在去年將此方法應用在美國的使用者資料庫，發現當假期來臨時幸福指數增加，當某些名人如麥克傑克森或希斯萊傑過逝時而下降。正當此研究的結果並不令人意外時，將這樣的概念用以測量國家的幸福程度倒是個新奇的想法。

After Facebook's latest update, the list now includes the U.S., Canada, India, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Chile, Uruguay, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Australia, Ireland, Venezuela and Colombia. Status updates in the English, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish languages are included in the data.根據臉書最後的更新，清單包含了美國、加拿大、印度、英國、比利時、荷蘭、波多黎格、新加坡、奧地利、德國、紐西蘭、義大利、智利、烏拉圭、西班牙、南非、阿根廷、澳洲、愛爾蘭、委內瑞拉和哥倫比亞。資料庫包含了英語、荷蘭語、德語、義大利語和西班牙語的狀態更新。

As you might have expected, residents of each country become happier on that country's holidays and during big events ? for example, Spain is happier on Saint Jordi's Day and U.S. residents are happier around the time of the Super Bowl. And speaking of sporting events, those can affect the results too; dips in happiness correspond with major sports defeats. Even bigger dips accompanied natural disasters like earthquakes, of course.一如你可能的期待，每個國家的住民在其國家的節慶或重大事件時會較快樂嗎？舉例來說：西班牙人在聖喬治節較快樂，而美國住民在超級盃時較快樂。並且說到運動賽事，這同樣可影響其結果。當重大賽事敗北幸福指數下降。當然，甚至更大的幸福指數下降肇因於天災，如地震。

We noticed that in some cases small increases of negativity accompanied big leaps in positivity. Not everyone has a great Christmas thanks to travel stress or family drama, so it's no surprise that the negative comments go up a little bit at that time of the year too. Play with the app yourself at Facebook's website to see what insights you can conjure up.我們注意到在某些案例裡，小幅增加的負面因素伴隨著大幅的正面因素。並不是每個人都有個沒有旅行壓力或家庭口角的聖誕節，因此對於負面的評價在這些重大的日子有些上升並不令人意外。親自使用臉書網站裡的程式，裡面的有什麼？你將往事歷歷在目。

If you find this data interesting, you'll also appreciate this: Facebook decided a couple of months ago to find out how relationship status affects happiness. Unsurprisingly, it found that folks in relationships tended to post happy updates more frequently. Singles were better off than users who didn't list their relationship status or were in open relationships, however.假如你覺得這資訊有趣，你同樣會對下述感到興趣：臉書在幾個月前決定找出感情狀態如何影響幸福指數。毫無意外地，結果透露出有感情狀態的人更常貼出快樂的更新。然而單身者又比那些不列出感情狀態或是開放的感情狀態者為佳。