New York States Of Mind

by Brendan James

A new study processed over 600,000 tweets to determine the “mood landscape” of New York Sh– ahem, City:

Some of the patterns are no surprise. For example, people tended to be happiest near green areas such as Central Park and unhappiest around transportation hubs such as Penn Station and the entrance to the Midtown Tunnel. But the fine-grained details are striking. The closer people were to Times Square, the happier they got. And the city’s mood had a daily rhythm, mirroring that of the individuals who live and work there. People’s feelings—both positive and negative—were muted in the morning and peaked around midnight.

Brian Merchant puzzles over the supposed happiest spot in all five boroughs:

Not only is Times Square the most joyful place in the city, it is the city’s veritable epicenter of happiness. That’s disturbing, for the obvious reasons, but it also makes a certain amount of sense. Times Square is the gleeful buzzing monument to American consumerism. It’s the place where many new arrivals and tourists go to feel like they’ve arrived in New York—and that feeling is exciting. It makes them happy. Happier than anywhere else in the city. And they tweet about it.

Right. It’s probably important to remember that last detail: the place where most New Yorkers feel truly content or jubilant will generate less tweets than the spot where loads of people are jazzed about a Broadway show or the Naked Cowboy. Or, at least, one hopes.