Selflessness and caregiving are key to the survival of the species—
and caregivers are rewarded with life. The nuance, emotion, and
physicality of caregiving keeps us young, as our camera sees we’re
adding value to humankind. This is Facebook’s vital link to our heart,
happiness, and health.
A quarter of humanity may populate Facebook feeds with schmaltz
and self-delusion. But Facebook also gives users the chance to find
love. It turns out that people can send a strong mating signal to their
networks just by changing their marital status from “In a
Relationship” to “Single.” Word of someone’s changed status can race
through the network, reaching distant nodes that person doesn’t know
exist.
Facebook analyzes any resulting behavioral changes on the
network whenever a customer switches his or her relationship
information. As the following graph shows, single people
communicate more on Facebook. It’s part of the preening of courtship.
But once they enter a relationship, communication plummets. The
Facebook machine tracks this and runs it through a process called
“sentiment analysis”—categorizing positive and negative opinions, in
words and photos, of each person’s level of happiness. And as you
might expect, coupling significantly increases happiness (though there
appears to be a dip following the initial euphoria).^13