PostNL tracks how the Netherlands feels via the Uithethart.nu website
24 October 2012 at 17:30 CET – The Hague – Of all the emotions we share on Twitter, “I miss you” is the one which occurs most frequently. We share the fact that we miss someone in no fewer than 13% of all messages. We furthermore feel particularly sad, elated and miserable. From Friday afternoon we are looking forward to the weekend. On Sunday evenings we lapse into a melancholy mood and at night we are especially sad. This is apparent from some 500,000 tweets based on emotion, collated over two weeks and analysed on PostNL’s website Uithethart.nu (which translates as ‘from the heart’).
PostNL introduced the Uithethart.nu website two weeks ago – a unique initiative which reveals the Netherlands’ mood for the very first time. The website collects all the tweets based on emotion, in this way showing just what the country is now feeling. The mood is assessed on the basis of all tweets with an emotion, which can also be read on the website.
On Fridays we are the most high-spirited and contented
Over the past two weeks we have mostly felt “elated”. Particularly in the run-up to and during the weekend we feel increasingly more high-spirited. Friday is the day on which we are the most “contented”. We become increasingly more high-spirited on Friday afternoon as the weekend nears. High-spirited messages often discuss things we would like: “pepernoten” (spicy Dutch biscuits), holidays and Christmas appear frequently.
Monday is the most distressing day
Collectively, from Sunday evening we slowly lapse into a depressed mood. On Sunday evening an average of 40% of all messages display a “miserable” emotion. On Monday morning 8 October it was even worse: 53% of all messages were “miserable”. The bad weather of that morning will certainly have played a role in this. In a general sense, Monday 8 October was the most miserable day in the period assessed. Around 28% of all messages were in this category.
The most depressing time of the day is at night
Plenty of tweeting also occurs at night, and many of these messages contain an emotion. At night the Netherlands feels mostly “melancholy”. We lie awake and share via social media that we can’t sleep, that we are ill or that we miss someone. In particular it is this latter which we frequently share at night: more than half of all melancholy messages are about someone we miss.
The Uithethart.nu website continues to be a collection point for just how the Netherlands feels.
About the “From the heart” campaign
PostNL introduced Uithethart.nu at the beginning of October: a website which shows for the first time just how we are feeling in the Netherlands. Through the website the Dutch can cheer someone up by responding to emotions. The senders of the nicest messages were surprised with real post, delivered personally by Nicolette van Dam. The Uithethart.nu website is now part of the launch of Postkantoor.nl and shows how you can surprise someone with post. Watch the videos: http://youtu.be/gMclZDpYyJ8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udr5QI1sasU&feature=youtu.be
About PostNL
PostNL processes 8.7 billion addressed postal items (including 106 million parcels) each year and delivers to addresses in the Benelux, Germany, the UK and Italy. PostNL’s main business is mail, parcels and e-commerce. The company also provides services in the area of data and document management, direct marketing and fulfilment. PostNL employs some 65,500 people. In 2011 the company generated a turnover of nearly 4.3 billion euros.
