Edmonton: the saddest Canadian city on Twitter?
An Ottawa researcher says Edmonton is the saddest Canadian city on Twitter.
AbdulmotalebElSaddik, a professor with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa, looked at the use of hashtags and emoticons to determine Twitter happiness.
He and his team analyzed more than 100,000 tweets from social media users in Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal and Halifax in early December, looking for hashtags like #feelinggood, #happy and #sad.
“In comparison to other cities, Edmonton was the least happy city … yet to be completely frank, it was only five per cent lower than Vancouver and Toronto.”
Given the timing of the study, ElSaddik said falling oil prices and the poor performance of the Edmonton Oilers could also have had an impact on Edmonton’s Twitter feelings.
ElSaddik also said it was interesting to note Edmontonians’ happiness does not appear to dip while they are at work — unlike people living in Montreal.
The team plans to continue collecting tweets and release more detailed findings next month.
Other interesting notes:
- All major cities had the same Twitter happiness levels on weekends
- The happiest tweeters live in Ottawa and Montreal
- Big events can drastically change a city’s mood on Twitter (just think of a hockey game)
- In Vancouver, people are happier in the morning than the evening
Listen to the full interview here:
