Facebook unveils new app that knows how the U.S. is feeling

Using data from status updates that are both public and semi-public, scientists and engineers at Facebook created the application that checks words used in status updates against the mood that the word usually relates to. The company made the announcement via its company blog. "When people in their status updates use more positive words—or fewer negative words—then that day as a whole is counted as happier than usual," wrote Adam Kramer, a Ph.D. student in social psychology at the University of Oregon and an intern on Facebook's data team. "It [the application] can count as an indicator of "Gross National Happiness," a metric only measured currently via Gallup polls and national surveys in countries such as France and Bhutan." Positive words the application looks for include "happy," "yay" and "awesome," whilst negative words include "sad," "doubt" and "tragic." Adam is quick to point out that no one at Facebook actually reads the updates. Instead, computers do all the calculations once all personally identifiable information has been removed. According to Facebook's new app, Kramer is 72 per cent happier than the average person on Facebook.