Twitter 'Mood Map' Tracks The Nation's Happiness (VIDEO)

Researchers from the Northeastern University College of Computer and Information Sciences and Harvard Medical School have developed an innovative way of tracking the nation's mood using tweets.

Their study, "Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day Inferred from Twitter", scanned over 300 million tweets, sent between September 2006 and August 2009, for emotionally charged language, then developed color-coded cartograms showing the mood of each state over the course of the day (the redder the color of the state the worse the mood, the greener the happier it is).

A few highlights from their findings:

• The "early morning and late evening" have the "highest level of happiness."

• The West coast is "significantly happier" than the East coast

• Weekends are "much happier" than weekdays.

See their visualization of the mood changes in the video below.