Gross National Happines/ The Feltron Report
I’ve been playing around with Facebook’s GRN app, and first, I wonder why there are so few countries on the list. Are they going by the countries with the most Facebook users? In which case, you’d think China would be on the list since they have such a huge population. Or, maybe they go by the countries that have the largest percentage of Facebook users. This would likely give a more accurate conclusion as to how a country was feeling on a particular day.
There are a few curiosities to think about on this tool. First: why are Canadians so happy on Thanksgiving? Second: Why are Indians so much happier than everyone else? Third: Why are Italians so stable on this app when we all know that our friends in Italy are…mercurial? GRN definitely aroused my curiosity, and it seems to me that this is the purpose of these types of tools. Creating graphs, maps, etc. shows us things we otherwise wouldn’t have noticed. As I mentioned before, I was confused about the level-headedness of Italian Facebook users. Maybe this graph shows that our assumption about “crazy Italians” is wrong. Or, perhaps this can be explained by a lack of Roman and Neapolitan Facebook users. (I apologize to any Italians I’ve offended)
The Feltron report is a barrage of graphs that I felt to be over-designed and therefore very confusing. I generally had no idea what I was clicking on, and therefore only got random tidbits of information about this guy’s life. I must say, I admire his dedication, but would rather die before undertaking a similar project. I think Felton would be aided by designing his annual report around some sort of theme or thesis. The 2009 report does this, but he only includes those with which he has a “meaningful encounter.” The question would then be: who decides what a meaningful encounter is? This, again, is a need for human bias in digital history.
An aside: I anyone else amazed at how few meals this guy takes at home? In 2007 he had only a 39% chance of eating dinner at his home. He also found his first gray hair on June 2oth, 2006…if you were wondering.
Or mercurial Italian Facebook users “temper” themselves a bit when posting their status? Or maybe half our Italian users posted sarcastic comments to express an seemingly opposite emotion? Like our experience with TweetFeel, I wonder how many “negative” or “positive” words used sarcastically are misconstrued. The inability to look under the hood in the GNH application is a bit frustrating.
I can (by stretching my imagination) see some value to doing one Feltron report (as some sort of social history). But doing it over and over again, strikes me as a task assigned to occupants of the social history ring of Hell.
I also agree that there is too much to navigate.
Sarah,
I alway enjoy reading your posts. I agree with you and Greg about the Felton reports. Not sure why – that is it, really. But, thank you for giving me ideas to think about every week.