title: Situations in 140 Characters: Assessing Real-World Situations on Twitter.
abstract: Over 20 million Tweets were used to study the psychological characteristics of real-world situations over the course of two weeks. Models for automatically and accurately scoring individual Tweets on the DIAMONDS dimensions of situations were developed. Stable daily and weekly fluctuations in the situations that people experience were identified. Predicted temporal trends were found, providing validation for this new method of situation assessment. On weekdays, Duty peaks in the midmorning and declines steadily thereafter while Sociality peeks in the evening. Negativity is highest during the workweek and lowest on the weekends. pOsitivity shows the opposite pattern. Additionally, gender and locational differences in the situations shared on Twitter are explored. Females share both more emotionally charged (pOsitive and Negative) situations, while no differences were found in the amount of Duty experienced by males and females. Differences in the situations shared from Rural and Urban areas were not found. Future applications of assessing situations using social media are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: David G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Serfass
authors.affiliation: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ryne A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Sherman
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D020407:Internet; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends*; D013997:Time Factors; D014505:Urban Population