Sydney: A new Australian study has found that blogging can boost people’s social life, by making them feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with their friendships, both online and personally.
This evidence is the result of two related studies, conducted by the Swinburne University Technology in Melbourne, Australia, which found that after two months of regular blogging, people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who didn't blog.
In the first study, researchers Susan Moore and James Baker compared the mental health of people intending to blog with that of people not planning to blog.
The study, published in the latest issue of the journal CyberPsychology and Behaviour, involved messaging 600 MySpace users a survey link; of which 134 completed the survey, 84 intended to blog and 50 didn't.
"We found potential bloggers were less satisfied with their friendships and they felt less socially integrated, they didn't feel as much part of a community as the people who weren't interested in blogging ... they were also more likely to use venting or expressing your emotions as a way of coping," News in Science quoted Moore, as saying.
"It was as if they were saying 'I'm going to do this blogging and it's going to help me," she added.
The follow-up study, which is yet to be published, was conducted after two months and was sent to the same group of users; only 59 individuals responded.
Those that originally intended to blog reported feeling more satisfied socially as a result of being a part of a group of like-minded individuals. Those same individuals expressed a feeling that they could rely on others for help as well.
On the whole, all MySpace users contacted felt more at ease and less stressed after spending two months of steady social networking on the popular site.
"So going onto MySpace had lifted the mood of all participants in some way. Maybe they'd just made more social connections," Moore said.
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