Happy Twitter Users Shun The Unhappy
Posted: Friday 18 March, 2011
Pete Goold
Dom, one of our new joiners, forwarded to the team a great article from the New Scientist which covers a report indicating that happy people tend not to mix with unhappy people on Social Media.
Tracking over a hundred thousand twitter users over six months seems to have indicated that the two groups rarely interact with each other.
The researchers admit that they don't have a clue why this is - however it does seem to be the contemporary and digital equivalent of the truism that one smile begets another, in a traditional context. Certainly we all gravitate to energy, dynamism and creativity - at least, I know I do.
Intereastingly, whilst I am hugely passionate about Twitter, it is certainly a forum for gripes and moans. For me, this does reinforce the need to abide by certain rules in terms of language - ie be positive but humble, don't swear (for the same reason that one would never swear in a press release or on a site) and be aware that whatever is written can be used as a judge of the author.
Whether we like it or not, social media puts it's users on show - and I would personally prefer to be sitting amongst the happy group than the unhappy, with all that it entails.
