Brad Harper

Montgomery Advertiser

Alabama may not be the saddest state in the nation, but it does use some of the most negative and colorful language on Twitter.

A national team of scientists and researchers put together an online tool called Hedonometer that looks at the words used in Tweets to get a better sense of trends in certain areas, and how they compare.

One of the patterns: the South curses a lot more on Twitter, and uses more negative words in general.

The real-time analysis doesn't account for context — so a "war eagle" tweet would be seen as somewhat negative because it includes the word "war." But the overall trends show a lot more negative words coming from the South, and especially Alabama.

In fact, Alabama ranked as the No. 3 most negative state on Twitter last year, according to the site. Montgomery was the No. 13 most negative city in the nation in 2011, three spots worse than Dothan.

Context isn't enough to explain away that much of a negative shift, said Chris Danforth, a University of Vermont professor who helped put together Hedonometer.

"Looking at the data above, I do see that the word 'war' is used more frequently in Alabama than the U.S. as a whole, but its contribution to difference is small," Danforth said. "If we removed it from consideration, the ranking of Alabama would not change.

"This data reflects many factors including personality differences, cultural difference, and socio-economic differences between people who tweet in Alabama and the rest of the country."

Bijoy Goswami got a taste of that culture for the first time last week. The Austin, Texas, native and entrepreneurial expert took a tour of the city and spoke to local businesspeople who are trying to spur positive change here.

He was impressed by the city's global role in progress through history, but also was struck by the division in themes and attitudes here.

"Is it Auburn, or is it Alabama?" Goswami said. "Is it the Confederacy or is it Rosa Parks? What's the narrative you're telling yourself? What narrative are you telling the world?

"(The attitude) was like, 'It isn't so bad here. It still kinda sucks, but it doesn't suck that bad.' That's not a good place to start."

But he said that can change when people take it upon themselves to move the narrative forward.

Montgomerian Errol Hylton said many people here never leave their areas and seek out new experiences, and only see the "mundanely bureaucratic" atmosphere of the area.

"Everyone just kind of does their own thing within their respective sectors across the city, and at the end of the day it's, 'I go over here, and you go over there!'" Hylton said.

He said that stifling routine likely feeds the negativity online, and the overall perception of the region. It's not surprising, then, that one of the most popular Twitter words from Montgomery in 2011 was "bored."

Hylton was one of those who met with Goswami last week as part of the latest #revolutionMGM summit, and Hylton said he came away optimistic about the city's future.

"The first step is sincere communication and the modest sharing of ideas," Hylton said. "The resources are clearly here, the talent is in your neighborhood, and the cause is within you. All that is left is to explore."

How it works

Hedonometer analyzes about 10 percent of the tweets posted each day. It examines the individual words of the tweet and scores each word on a nine-point scale, with 1 being the most sad and 10 being the most happy. More neutral words — including some profanities — fall in the middle.

It doesn't consider context, but most words count toward the overall score. If you tweet, "I'm gone on vacation," the word "gone" would be considered slightly negative but "vacation" would be considered very positive, meaning an overall positive shift.

Things like death and war are seen as a negative, even when some would consider them a positive. For instance, on the day of Osama bin Laden's death the site measured the world talking about a very negatively viewed character meeting a very negative end, and pointed out an overall negative shift.

While not everyone tweets, the scientists behind the algorithm found that Twitter allows them to grab the most data — and the most accurate data — of all online options, and its results correlate well with more traditional surveys about well-being.

Dixie Downer

In 2011, five of the 10 most popular words in tweets from Montgomery were profanities. These are some of the other most popular words.

» LOL

» Ain't

» Gone

» Me

» Don't

» Ill

» Beach

» Bored

» Hospital

» Mad

Source: Hedonometer.org