Because you need to see this again (or perhaps for the first time):
The Overflow
"For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." -Jesus
Gross National Happiness According to Facebook
I just read a very interesting post on the Facebook blog.
Apparently for over a year social scientists have utilized computers to collect data from Facebook users’ status updates.
Here’s a quote from Facebook data team member Adam D. I. Kramer:
Every day, through Facebook status updates, people share how they feel with those who matter most in their lives. These updates are tiny windows into how people are doing. They’re brief, to the point, and descriptive of what’s going on this week, today or right now.
Grouped together, these updates are indicative of how we are collectively feeling. At Facebook, we’re always looking for ways to help people better understand the world around them, and we’re interested in how people express their emotions with one other and the world. So earlier this year, data scientists at Facebook started a project to measure the overall mood of people from the United States on Facebook, based on the sentiment expressed in status updates.
The result was and index that measures how happy people on Facebook are from day-to-day by looking at the number of positive and negative words they’re using when updating their status. When people in their status updates use more positive words—or fewer negative words—then that day as a whole is counted as happier than usual.
Though more countries or languages may be added later, the current result is notable since it is based on the updates of all English-speaking U.S. Facebook users. In this sense, it can count as an indicator of “Gross National Happiness,” a metric only measured currently via Gallup polls and national surveys in countries such as France and Bhutan. To protect your privacy, no one at Facebook actually reads the status updates in the process of doing this research; instead, our computers do the word counting after all personally identifiable information has been removed.
For our Gross National Happiness index, we adapted a collection of positive and negative emotion words built by social psychologists. Examples of positive or happy words include “happy,” “yay” and “awesome,” while negative, or unhappy words, include “sad,” “doubt” and “tragic.” We also did a brief survey of some Facebook users, which showed that people who use more positive words, relative to the number of negative words, reported higher satisfaction with their lives.
Cool.
I wonder how long it will be before this tool is used as commonly as the Gallup polls (if it’s used at all).
Check out the rest of Adam’s post here; play around with the Gross National Happiness Index here.
Easter is on of the happiest days of the year in English-speaking countries. 🙂
Dan Kimball: “If tradition gets in the way of mission, then it’s a sin!” Does Jesus agree?
Check out these comments from Dan Kimball:
Have you ever witnessed a local church holding on to traditions that kept getting in the way of their God-given mission to seek and to save the lost? Any examples you’d like to share?
Dan makes a bold statement: “If tradition gets in the way of mission, then it’s a sin!”
Watch the video and tell me what you think – is he right or wrong?
I believe Dan is right.
In fact, he echoes Jesus’ own words in Mark 7:1-13 (cf. Matthew 15:1-6):
Mark 7:1-13
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and
2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed.
3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.
4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
9 And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God),
12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.
13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
(NIV)
Look at that – Jesus said in verses 7 & 8 , “Their teachings are but rules taught by men … You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men,” in verse 9, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commends of God in order to observe your own traditions,” and in verse 13, “You nullify the word of God by your tradition …”
Wow!
And is this still an issue today?
Well … ?
Is it always easy to distinguish between manmade traditions and the will of God? Why or why not?
The Overflow 