Twitter: Users' tweets could reveal loneliness

According to studies conducted, Loneliness has become a new health epidemic. A BBC field investigation determined that Approximately 27% of older people feel lonely, and this percentage increases to 40% among young people.. Now, a group of scientists have managed to predict whether a user feels lonely, based on the tweets they post on the Twitter app.

This way, scientists at Penn Medicine, through the use of linguistic analytical models to the messages of the application, determined that the Users who tweeted messages related to loneliness wrote a greater number of tweets..

Furthermore, those The most frequent tweets are related to mental well-being, insomnia, and the use of harmful substances or drugs.. Also included in their messages are the problems in interpersonal relationships.

For this reason, I believe that with this discovery, users with this tendency could be detected more easily, allowing for appropriate measures to be taken in these cases before they worsen.

In contrast, They compared users with a tendency towards loneliness with those who did not., managing to determine that People with problems are predisposed to write almost twice as many messages. In addition to prefer the nights to send these types of messages.

What did those messages on Twitter say?

When scientists analyzed the data, they detected a specific pattern in the messages. For example, phrases like "I can't" or "I just want to," and profanity were used to express emotional difficulties. Regarding relationships, they used phrases like "nobody" or "wanting someone." If they referred to substances in the message, words like "smoking," "weed," and "drunk" appeared, to name just a few.

Furthermore, these Users may also be associated with depression, anger, and anxiety. Three moods that are major triggers of social problems.

Now then, One point in favor of social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Because by conducting studies with sound methodology and focus, valuable information can be obtained. With this relevant data, measures can be taken to prevent problems in society.

So, tell us what you think of these behavioral studies that are being conducted. What other research should scientists do?

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