I’m sure we can all relate to the frustration technology can cause, now thanks to social media we get to watch people vent this anger directly at the companies held responsible; even join in ourselves if we like. And the most active venting ground by far -Twitter- is the favoured avenue for most people in the UK to express their displeasure.
Back in 2020, Broadband Genie explored Stress levels on social media among home broadband customers. Now the experiment has been repeated, this time with a focus on mobile networks.
The experiment examined 344,243 tweets sent to mobile network providers between the 1st of March 2020 and the 1st of March 2021, using a system called ‘TensiStrength’ to estimate the level of stress in each of the messages.
TensiStrength is a stress-measurement tool developed by Mike Thelwall, professor of data science at the University of Wolverhampton. It assigns a stress rating of between 1 (No Stress) and 5 (Extremely Stressed) to each tweet, based on language used in the text.
According to the findings of TensiStrength, ID Mobile has the most stressed customers, with 26% of tweets scoring between 3 and 5 on the TenshiStrength stress test, followed by Asda with 21% and Three with 20%. At the other end of the scale, giffgaff has the least-stressed customers with just 9% of tweets receiving a stress score of 3-5.
Here’s a graph detailing how a bunch of other mobile networks faired in the stress test:
When we look at the ratings by network operators, Three has the highest stress scores at 20%, while EE and O2 had the best performance with around 16% of customer tweets rated as stressed.
Overall, mobile network customers seem to be happier than home broadband users. On average, just 17% of mobile tweets contained stressful language, compared to an average of 24% for home broadband.
A spokesperson at giffgaff said: “Whilst we are delighted to see giffgaff rank as the least stressful mobile network provider, we appreciate that this is no time to rest on our laurels. Before giffgaff was even a business, we had our community – so we’ve always been member-led and continue to stick to our value and promise of being run by you.
“We have dedicated resource to answering our member queries and we aim to respond to all social media comments within 15 minutes. Meanwhile, the fact that our members are so involved and help out could make people feel a greater sense of reassurance that giffgaff is built on a genuine and caring community.”
Kevin Daly, Marketing Manager at Zevo Health said: “It’s important to reduce our stress levels because stress will result in poor physical and mental health. When we are stressed, the stress hormone cortisol is produced to keep the body on high alert. When cortisol surges through the body, it increases the blood sugar levels and suppresses the immune system. High cortisol levels can lead to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety disorders.
“To reduce mobile phone-delivered stress, set a time for your phone to “rest”. When you’re about to sleep, charge your phone away from your bed and don’t use it until the next morning. The goal is to prevent yourself from checking your phone and using social media apps until late in the night. It will also help a lot if you practise meditation to manage your stress.”