Happiness Scores (Spokane: 2013, home, living)

[MisfitBanana]

Saw this infographic on Huffington Post - apparently they looked at tweeted "happy" words, and Spokane is one of the cities that came out on top:

The Happiest States In America In One Map (INFOGRAPHIC)

[PS90]

Interesting report. But, as an old fart, I would like to see the correlation between people who care about Twitter to the population of these cities, before I take this study to heart.

[PS90]

To expound on what I wrote earlier, I would doubt that "Twitter" has much impact across all demographics, and therefore, these articles are mostly written for the people that read them, but don't really mean anything.

As a disclaimer, I have no idea what the point of Twitter is, and I have never once gone to the Twitter home page. Nor do I have plans to.

But it seems to me that the younger generations are vastly over-represented in any "study" that counts Twitter posts as "data". Now, does that mean that young people are happier? Maybe they are more clueless when it comes to the economy because they still live with their parents (just an example)? Maybe they are actually sadder? Who knows, but I know I don't really have much in common with 20-somethings anymore...

[Count David]

Originally Posted by PS90

To expound on what I wrote earlier, I would doubt that "Twitter" has much impact across all demographics, and therefore, these articles are mostly written for the people that read them, but don't really mean anything.

As a disclaimer, I have no idea what the point of Twitter is, and I have never once gone to the Twitter home page. Nor do I have plans to.

But it seems to me that the younger generations are vastly over-represented in any "study" that counts Twitter posts as "data". Now, does that mean that young people are happier? Maybe they are more clueless when it comes to the economy because they still live with their parents (just an example)? Maybe they are actually sadder? Who knows, but I know I don't really have much in common with 20-somethings anymore...

I just began my last 3 months of being a 20-something, so I have a Twitter, and have an idea about Twitter.

You write something, kind of like a random thought or something you'd like to share, and it goes to all of your "followers", people that would be interested in something you would say. You also "follow" people, people whom you'd be interested in and/or your friends. It's also used as a tool to keep up with current events/etc.

Judging by the map, there is a disproportion in favor of cities in "prettier" areas IMO.

I know that I was borderline ecstatic in Spokane, and could probably be nearly-equally so in some of the other places on the map.

The vast majority of people I network with on social media simply use it to complain, or pimp whatever they're doing at the moment. I probably only check Facebook/Twitter once a week, and then remember why I do so only once a week, because I frankly don't give a damn about Nikki's politics, Mary's problems, or some missing or dying kid in Cedar Rapids (not that I don't care about missing/dying kids, but I think you get the idea).

Twitter and Facebook have permeated the culture. Who knows if they are here to stay (I remember 15 years ago, AOL was pretty important, not so much now), but just about everyone and everything has both now.

I think most studies, including this one can be thrown out on technicality. I mean for example, Boulder, a city listed above, ranks up there with Spokane. To be completely honest, Boulder is a place that feels like everybody is on freakin' Prozac. So positivity can be artificial. In another manner, the same could be said about Simi Valley, and Lafayette: of course you're "happy" when you live in a sterilized environment designed specifically with happiness in mind.

Now, I'm not a beach guy, but I'm sure I wouldn't hate life too much in San Clemente or Santa Barbara (assuming finances were taken care of), and I think Spokane may fall into a similar realm. Life in Spokane doesn't have to be hard if you don't want it to be. Cost of living is generally low, and most jobs can support some kind of reasonable life. There's tons of recreation everywhere you look. It's not drab in the least. Many people have strong familial ties to the area. Most people have a good work-life balance. How could that not breed happiness, or at least the perception therein?

My perception of Spokane is that many people there focus on doing fun/happy/positive stuff (and some obviously are tweeting about it). There's no traffic to complain about, no overbearing fear of crime, no career/status focused culture.

Twitter was just used as the barometer, and if young people are the median demographic for the study, then the future should be bright.

[PS90]

David,

Very well-worded post. And I completely agree with your points about Spokane, and don't disagree that Spokanites (is that the correct term?) are generally happy.

I also agree with your comments about Twitter. Again, maybe it because I'm old, but when people speak of Twitter as The Greatest Invention On Earth, I always think about the thousands of one-hit-wonder musical artists - the latest one I can think of is Carley Rae Jepson, but I'm sure there are others right now. They burst onto the scene with a hit song, all the hipsters instantly fall in love with them, they land multiple endorsement deals and commercials, are big hits on late night TV and all the award shows, and then after the span of usually about 6-12 months, nobody can remember who sang that hit song.

To me, that's what Twitter is. Or may soon be, I guess. I guess you hit the nail on the head with the AOL comment.

[Yeledaf]

As usual, David is infuriatingly reasonable, and his remarks make a lot of sense.

Be that as it may, and speaking as a resident unreasonable curmudgeon (beginning my last three years of being sixty-something ), let me say that the whole idea of tweeting -- by definition -- implies shallow, aphoristic thinking. Not to mention recalling the phrase "bird brain".

I follow you, you follow her. She follows him, they follow me. We follow them. Whatever. Sounds like a whole lotta would-be pied pipers...