By Sherry Mazzocchi
The Brits say Bronxites are stressed. A new study conducted by a British digital health service says the Bronx is New York’s most stressed-out borough. According to an analysis of 5 million tweets over a two-week period, 12.11 percent of Bronx-based tweets were measured as “stressed” with Thursday being most stressful day, and mornings as the most stressful time. This is how the stats line up, borough by borough, with the Bronx taking the lead. The study was conducted by Babylon Health, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to provide remote consultations with patients, using a “Chatbot” to provide health information. The study employed a tool called TensiStrength developed by Mike Thelwall, professor of IT at Wolverhampton University in the United Kingdom. It studied texts for frustration, anger, anxiety and negativity. The tool, an opinion mining program, looks for emotion terms, insults, and stress terms. It pays closer attention to short-term stress situations, like being stuck in traffic instead of longer term ones such as bereavement. Indications of stress increase when people tweet negative words such as “never,” “filthy,” delayed,” and obscenities. Extra points are added for exclamation points and still more for multiple punctuation. “The list also includes stressors as additional indirect indicators in the belief that if someone describes situations that are likely causes of stress, such as being late, then they may be experiencing stress,” explained Thelwall. The study admits its approach isn’t as consistent when compared to the average results of three specifically trained human coders. Since language is creative and flexible, it’s hard to determine real meanings when homonyms, figurative speech and sarcasm are used. So it’s possible that the Bronx isn’t completely stressed out. It might just be wittier than their bots. It also found that Hialeah, Florida is the most stressed city in the U.S., with reportedly 13.03 percent of its residents tweeting out their stress. For more information, please visit bit.ly/2Hs4uhX.Stress in the BX
• The Bronx 12.11 percent
• Staten Island 11.50 percent
• Queens 11.28 percent
• Brooklyn 11.02 percent
• Manhattan 9.08 percent
Remarkably, New York City didn’t even make the top ten list; they first ten are listed below.
• Hialeah, Florida 13.03 percent
• San Bernardino, California 12.87 percent
• North Las Vegas, Nevada 12.76 percent
• Mesa, Arizona 12.59 percent
• Chula Vista, California 12.03 percent
• Bakersfield, California 11.96 percent
• Toledo, Ohio 11.92 percent
• Stockton, California 11.91 percent
• Santa Ana, California 11.89 percent
• Riverside, California 11.86 percent
