Prompt Cast
Measuring Global Happiness: The Decline and Fluctuations Over the Past Five Years
TLDR Researchers have developed a tool called the hedonometer to measure and plot everyone's happiness on a day-to-day basis using data from Twitter. The tool reveals a decline in global happiness over the past five years, with the unhappiest day in the English-speaking world since 2008 being May 31st, 2020. The host reflects on their own happiness levels throughout the year and discusses the importance of recognizing small things that bring incremental happiness.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
Researchers have developed a tool called the hedonometer to measure and plot everyone's happiness on a day-to-day basis using data from Twitter.
04:17
The hedonometer analyzes words on Twitter to determine their happiness or sadness, with words like laughter and happiness ranking as the happiest and words like suicide and terrorist ranking as the unhappiest.
08:07
According to the hedonometer, the last five years have seen a decline in global happiness, with the unhappiest day in the English-speaking world since 2008 being May 31st, 2020, following the deaths of George Floyd and the Amy Cooper incident in Central Park.
11:56
The host analyzes their own text messages from the past year to see if their happiness aligns with the global decline in happiness.
16:02
The host's text messages from October 2019 to October 2020 show a mix of positive and negative words, but according to the hedonometer, they were happier than most people during that time.
20:24
The host reflects on their past experiences and notes that their happiness levels fluctuated throughout the year, with November being a particularly happy month due to spending time with their kids on the beach, but September being the worst month so far due to concerns about their child's school and the current state of the world.
24:13
The hedonometer shows that if you laugh, you're laughing alone, but if you cry, the whole world is crying with you, and it suggests that the host is having a harder time with their unhappiness than most people.
28:54
The host discusses the importance of recognizing small things that bring incremental happiness and asks listeners to share their own self-care practices for the upcoming winter season.
Categories:
Technology
Society & Culture
