TV. Newspaper. Radio. If you jump into the comments section of any local media outlet's social media page, you would assume that people in Idaho are almost as miserable as people in states like New York, New Jersey and California. 

It blows our minds how people can complain about even the most positive articles they read. An article about how Spirit Halloween stores helped raise over $100K for St. Luke's Children's Hospital, drew some surprising and weird criticisms.

The comment that still makes up laugh was one we got while introducing you to Boise's newest bagel shop - Goldstein's Bagels. The article's headline was "Boise's Unique New Bagel Shop Will Make You Feel Like You're in New York City" and goes on to explain that the owner, Jamie's, inspiration for the restaurant came from visiting her grandparents' apartment in Brooklyn.

"Idahoans don't want our beloved home to feel like NY. Appreciate here for the wonderful place it is. Stop trying to make it like all the other places people have come from."

It was just so unnecessarily negative that we couldn't help but reply "It's the style of bagels they make. Relax. It's just bagels."

The comments get meaner and nastier the more serious the subject matter is. No wonder Idaho recently found itself on a list of the least friendly states in America! But is everyone in Idaho this miserable and unhappy? Or is Idaho's good name being soiled by a few bad apples that feel very brave behind a keyboard? A recent deep dive by HouseFresh tried to answer that question.

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They had a unique approach to determining which states and cities in the United States were the happiest and unhappiest places. Rather than using census data like so many other lists, they decided to use Microsoft's AI facial recognition software on Instagram selfies tagged from all over the country. It measured emotions like anger, contempt, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise as well as smile intensity.

When they averaged the numbers they split the rankings into the "Happiest" and "Smiliest" states in the country because you very well could be smiling, but faking actual happiness.

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So, how did things look for the Gem State? It turns out, as a whole, Idahoans are WAY happier than those social media comments lead you to believe! We ranked #10 in both categories: Happiest State in America and Smiliest State in America.

Neighboring state, Utah, took the #1 spot in both categories. When they broke things down by city, Provo was ranked the #2 happiest city in America. Ogden checked in at #7.

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