People look at Facebook pages for a variety of reasons, mostly personal. This week’s article discusses how researchers are taking advantage of Facebook as a source of data for social research. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the article, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.
How accurate do you think the Gross National Happiness Index is? Respond to the following quotation, “The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person’s mood.” Do you agree that Facebook records relationships? How accurate do you think the researchers are in analyzing the ethnic and racial backgrounds of Facebook users? Mr. Pennebaker indicates in the article that the research has the potential to turn “creepy.” What would be your worst fear about how the data could be used?
Facebook Article
27 comments:
I think that the GNH is relatively accurate, it is understandable that during the holidays people are happier. I don't think that words can reveal someone's mood because you have to know what they are talking about and you also have to check in what context it's in. I don't think Facebook records relationships because they really couldn't do anything with it, and many of my friends use they relationship status as jokes. I don't think that Facebook researchers can really determine the racial background of people since they would have to look at the pictures and make sure from their friends what their race is, that would take years to do. My biggest fear would be blackmail, like if they would use my own pictures against me.
I think that it is accurate because they are making their studies on the statuses that people write on facebook or their wall comments, and I think it is true, people are happier in holidays and vacations and weekends, and they are based on what the people feel and write about. Yes, I agree with what the quote is saying because on facebook write what they feel and by that you are basically saying that word choice can reveal a person’s mood. I don’t think that they can analyze and know their ethnic and racial background from using facebook, because they might not put pictures of them, etc… The data could be used for criminal usage, or blackmailing or getting information for people that can do “stuff” to you, so yes it can really get creepy.
It must be mostly accurate because people tend to use those kind of words when they are happy. The statement is almost entirely true, because in most cases, people feel the need to express their feelings to their friends. Seeing all these articles about Facebook intruding with people's lives, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they recorded relationships. I don't think background information could be entirely true due to the fact there are so many users on Fcaebook, with not enough time to identify all their backgrounds. The things I've heard about Facebook are quite creepy, my worst fear is that the data retrieved by Facebook is shared, which is probably true.
I think the Gross National Happiness Index is not accurate. I do not think that it is an accurate way of knowing the happiness of people by their facebook statuses. By using only the keywords “Happy, yay, and awesome” the index does not know if this is an accurate description of the person or something else. There are other words to describe happiness and sadness. Contradicting this however I do believe that you can tell by word choice what type of mood a person is in. If using explicit, or harsh and severe words you can tell a person is mad. I do not see why Facebook would record relationships since there is not much you can do with it. I am married too my best friend on facebook but we are not really “married.” I do not see how Facebook can judge a persons a persons ethnic background other then pictures and people are often different from what they look like. I do not believe this would be an accurate way of seeing the ethnic backgrounds of people.
My worst fear of the use of information that I post on facebook is that it would be sent to colleges that I choose to apply too. I find this frightening because it is said that colleges do look at you facebook accounts past and present. This does not make me feel comfortable because I know that every time I post something on facebook it can later on be used against me.
I believe that the “Gross National Happiness Index” is not that accurate as you think it would be. The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person’s mood.” You truly never know if someone is actually happy or sad from a comment, maybe the status was written from someone else, or someone just wanted to carry on the same statuses even though he might not care while writing it, and have a completely opposite mood. Oh please, Facebook won’t spend their times recording 100 million user’s relationships over the many years, also most relations that my friends have are joke like Aziz is a relationship with and I would put my cat or something. Researchers are in analyzing the ethnic and racial backgrounds of Facebook users, this is definitely low accuracy, most of my profile pictures are not of me but they’re my friend’s picture or even idols. The scariest thing is that Facebook keeps track of everything and even for you Colleges this stuff over the many years I had on Facebook could harm me, harm me a lot.
I think that the Gross National Happiness Index is quite accurate because it is better to see other people be happy during holidays and how their émotions change throughout the year. I do agree that word choice can reveal a person’s mood because I think in status updates on Facebook are usually reflections on how the person is doing or what is going on in their lives, even though sometimes you may not know that the person is really thinking, but they use words that could be good or bad. This could show that the situation that they are in is good or bad. I don’t agree that Facebook records relationships because to be honest, its non of their business to know who you are with or who you broke up with etc… I don’t think that researchers are accurate when they are analyzing the ethnic and racial backgrounds because there are so many facebook users that the researchers wouldn’t have the time to go through all backgrounds. It would talk years to do so. My worst fear is that they would find information about me that I would consider personal and show the world.
-Rachel
After I read this article, I think the "Gross National Happiness Index" is very accurate because, everyone uses their status on Facebook to explain their mood everyday. Yes, I certainly do agree that on holidays Facebook status's are much happier than they are normally. The quote “The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person’s mood.” is true, because every word can explain each person's mood. Yes, Facebook does record relationships since it is recent, and accurate. I don't think they can seek through their ethnic and racial background on Facebook, I think that is untrue, because what if they don't write a personal message (status) about it, what if they don't put pictures at all? You can't rely on Facebook to do that. yes it can get really creepy, because it mentioned before that you can do anything violent on Facebook it is not limited, it can be used criminal usage, or having to do with blackmailing. That proves it.
-Sarah✰
I think that it is true that what people write when they update their statuses on Facebook depends on their mood. So in that sense the Gross National Happiness Index shows a pretty accurate picture of how people feel on certain days. If one listens to people speaking one can hear a different choice of words depending on their mood. People fighting always use more nasty words than they would do other times, so why should it not be true for writing as well. I definitely agree that Facebook records relationships. But I’m not sure if I like it to be a record of my relationships.
The researchers must have difficulties in analyzing ethnic and racial background of Facebook users since it is nothing you have to post on your profile, and only if you are interested in those things it will show. Just referring to people’s last name wont give a very accurate picture. Facebook is private and extremely open at the same time, built on the idea of people talking to people. If the personal data about users would be known to marketing companies they would probably send a lot of ads directly to Facebook users and that way interfere with the whole idea, making it a less interesting place to be.
IDUNN
I think the Gross National Happiness Index is pretty accurate. And I agree with the quotation, “The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person’s mood.” When people are happy, they seem to speak kind languages. I don't seem too surprised about Facebook recording relationships because Facebook already has intruded the lives of people. I don't think researchers analyzing the ethnic and racial backgrounds of Facebook are accurate because some people don't even put pictures or backgrounds. The research absolutely has a possibility to turn creepy. My worst fear would be blackmail, since people will use my information and spread it all around Facebook.
I think that the GHN is not that accurate because just because of what people write on Facebook might not really be accurate like when people say wicked or sick they might be counted as negative feelings or they could be feelings like awesome etc. I don't think that the relationship status is accurate at all because anyone could just use it as a prank or just for laughs. The GHN is just something people can do but its not accurate and so is the relationship status.
I don't really think that Facebook records relationship statuses because it would be pointless and just a waste of time for them because they can't tell anything from it. Most people use the relationship status thing just as a joke though so even if Facebook recorded it, it wouldn't be accurate. I also think that the GNH isn't accurate because some people might not be happier during the holidays because of stress or something else.
I think the Gross National Happiness Index is accurate because it is good to see how people’s emotions change throughout the year like in the holidays people are happy but during the rest of the year they get sad. I agree that word choice does reveal a persons mood because someone might right how they feel in the status and it reveals it to all his or hers friends. I don’t agree with facebook records relationships because these things are private unless the person wants to reveal it to all his friends. I don't think it is that accurate because there are so many facebook users that it would take forever to go through all of them. I think that it is "creepy" because facebook knows everything about me and use it for collage, also they know what site I am going to if I have facebook open on the other tab, and this could affect my future.
I think the Gross National Happiness Index isn’t very accurate, because it doesn’t show the actual happiness of people. The given quote could be accurate, but online your word choice usually reveals the type of mood you want to bring forth, even if it wasn’t completely true. Someone saying “yay” doesn’t make them happy. Words can be used sarcastically. I do agree that Facebook records relationships. I think the researchers aren’t very accurate in analyzing the ethnical and racial backgrounds of Facebook users, because they have no way of getting completely correct information. My worst fear about how the data could be used is that someone probes my personal information, conversations, and my life in general.
The Gross National Happiness index seems accurate but I am not impressed. It seems quite obvious. Of course, holidays are times of joy for most people, and death of any kind makes most people sad. Word choice can indeed reveal a person's mood but is not fool proof. Facebook sometimes records real relationships, but people often put jokes in the relationship status box, which would throw off researchers. Researchers might have trouble accurately analyzing ethnic and racial backgrounds of users, because some people have complicated origins. Also, as far as I know, there is no area on Facebook for stating one's race. On Facebook, I think I am pretty well protected, and I seldom say anything profane that could be used against me. My main concern regarding Facebook is that an embarassing picture of me will become published so that thousands of people see it.
I do not think the Gross National Happiness Index is accurate because sometimes you cannot describe how you are feeling in words. Words are things that cannot explain how a person feels because they are so vague they can’t describe your feelings well, that’s why sometimes it’s hard to describe to a person how you feel. No I do not think Facebook can record relationships because you can be friends with your enemy for the sake of having people. I think they can be accurate because occasionally you tell people were you are and you have pictures to prove where you were. My worst fear would be if colleges looked at this data and decided that you're attitude was not the kind they were looking for.
i don't think that the Gross National Happiness Index is very accurate. Just because people said "yay," and "awesome," that can't mean that they are happy. Oppositely, it doesn't always mean that people are said by saying words with negative feeling, such as "sad," and "tragic."
I agree with the quote. I think people's word choice reveal their feeling. Often when people are angry, they unconciously use severe words while talking.
I strongly disagree, or at least i hope they don't. I hope non of facebook users want facebook to record their relationship with their friends. Of course very not accurate. I have more pictures of my friends, neighbor and more than I have picture of my own. my worst fear would be people probing, digging out all my pasts and my personal information to use them for their own good.
i think the "Grow National Happiness Index” is mostly accurate because it mostly likely true that people tended to be more happier during the weekend/holidays. they also used facebook status to explain what there mood was everyday. I agree that word choice does reveal a persons mood because someone might write how there emotion in the status and it reveals it to all his or hers friends. I don’t agree with facebook records relationships because these things are private unless the person wants to reveal it to all his friends. i dont think the it is accurtue because there millions of people that have facebook now days and it will take forever in order to hunted everyone record keeping. one of the things i found "creepy" and facebook can give this information to collage i go to or if i apply for a job they would find out what did while i was online if had facebook open on another tab. this can ruin my future.
I think that it is obvious that people during holidays are happier so the Gross National Happiness index is accurate. I don't think that words can describe feelings you have to be next to the person to understand how he feels. I don't think that the relationship status is accurate because usually people use it to indicate their best friends under married. i don't think that facebook can actually identify the or color of people because they would need to look up pictures to identify race.
Jan Kuttab
I don't think the GNH is that accurate, because people just don't write what they feel, and when they do on holidays it's generally "OMG its finallly friday!!!!1", and I really don't think that shows that they are happier. They just are 'happy' for the moment that they don't need to go to school or work, but they might, and probably don't, feel happy the entire day.
The word analysis also seems a little ridiculous. On Facebook statuses, people just write, basically, crap. They are so few words that analyzing them is just shooting peas. "Whateva, whateva, I slaughtered five baby seals with my bare hands, whateva, I do what I want!" is my current status. It's a quote from a South Park episode, and can you analyze it? I don't think so (maybe 'slaughtered': like omgs he said sluaghterr that totallly meens hes like piised off!).
Then trying to find out our background information by analyzing our statuses? That's shooting sugary grapes that are under-ripe. Unless you do dozens of studies on every race and ethnicity. Otherwise you're just using stereotypes. Plus in this day and age, people sound the same; if you're on Facebook, you probably watch TV and browse the Internet at least a bit, and there you will be affected by other cultures all the time, and become 'beige' in the mental way, which would definitely affect your writing.
Lastly, the creepiness. I think this entire thing is really creepy, and ridiculous. I hate Facebook in this sense, where they just give out information like food at a soup kitchen. They say they will try and protect your information, but Facebook is terribly designed in that sense. Once someone is your friend, hacking your account becomes very easy. Even if they aren't your friend, they can find out your email easily enough, and then hack that. That's why about 8 months before I apply to college I'm going to delete my Facebook. There's crap there that I don't want colleges to see, and I don't want them to have easy access to it. I'm still in 9th grade, so I'm going to enjoy my Facebook and post stuff that I shouldn't, but it's going to go "Poof" before any snooping colleges can get to it.
I think that the GNH is just an indication how people feel, as there is no accurate measurement that would measure someone's happiness or sadness. However, the word choice could provide a very good indication how someone is feeling at thatparticular moment. I don't agry that it is possible for any researcher to accuratly determine the ratial origin of any person since that does not depend in any way on the words that person uses. However, it is true that some groups of people (college people) are using certain words or phrases that may be specific for their group. However, I don't think it's possible to determine someone's race on the basis of words they use.
Me too, on sundays usually use words like sleepy, tired, exhausted...
I agree and think that people are happy during holidays, so i think the gnh is accurate. The message is not very accurate, because it can only be a quote or supposed to be funny. Facebook for me is not a source of information about someone because it can be pure fantasy what people write on it. My worst fear would be that someone turns the facts upside down and makes some other story out of them.
I think that the happiness index is relatively accurate unless people are being sarcastic for example if they say that they are "so happy" when in reality they are depressed, facebook would not pick up the sarcasm and neither would the happiness index. The quotation "The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person's mood" is only true when the person uses words that actually relate to their mood, and mean the words that they are using. I don't think that facebook should record relationships when a lot of them are fake anyways, and people's relationship statuses shouldn't be recorded. I don't think facebook is very accurate in recording and analyzing ethnic and racial backgrounds, because again, a lot of fake information is posted. I agree with Mr. Pennebaker on how the research is potentially creepy. My worst fear is that my private information could be recorded and stalked by people I don't know and even possibly used against me.
I think the Gross National Happiness Index is pretty accurate. There doesn't seem like a reason for it not to be, they make it off of what they gather in information. I agree with the quote, because people's choices do reflect their moods. Most of the time this is very true but there are some cases where the choices you make are just the opposite of what your mood is. I guess a agree that Facebook records relationships... I'm not really sure though. I don't think that the researchers are accurate at finding the ethnic backgrounds of people by their last names. That is definitely not the most accurate way you could find that out. The last name of a person could have nothing to do with their backgrounds. My worst fear is that soon enough anybody will be able to know everything about you from one website, even if you put the information on there or not.
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