Researchers measured people’s physical and psychological responses while they used Facebook, performed a stressful task, or just relaxed, and found each of these activities appears to have a different effect on mood and arousal.
Dr Maurizio Mauri of the Institute of Human, Language and Environmental Sciences at IULM University in Milan, Italy, and colleagues, write about their findings in the peer-reviewed journal ‘Cyberpsychology, Behaviour, and Social Networking’. A press statement on the study was released earlier this week, Xinhua reported. In their background information, the researchers explain that few studies have tried to find out which aspects of the social networking experience makes sites like Facebook so successful, although it is known that their use can have both positive and negative effects.
For their study, they measured specific psychophysiological patterns
in 30 healthy volunteers aged 19 to 25 during a three-minute exposure to each of three conditions: while using Facebook (via their own personal accounts), while observing a slide show of natural landscapes (a relaxation condition), or while completing a Stroop test and mathematical task (a stress condition).
The measures included skin conductance, blood volume pulse, brainwave patterns (using electroencephalograms), muscle activity (using electromyography), breathing activity, and pupil dilation.
