mind over matter

I know I spend a lot of time blogging about spanked children and depressed teenagers and acne-ridden would-be athletes, but the latest research hits closer to home. A new study from the Swinburne University of Technology found that blogging makes people feel less isolated, more satisfied with their social lives and more connected to a community. So, go me.

The study followed first-time voluntary bloggers for two months and then compared their mental health to non-bloggers’. Here’s the thing to notice, though - the participants were not a random sample, but rather MySpace users who volunteered.

“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,” [Professor Susan] Moore says. “It was as if they were saying ‘I’m going to do this blogging and it’s going to help me’.”

And, uh, it did. But perhaps it’s having less of an effect on me, since I was already pretty cool with my friends and am maintaining this blog for a weekly grade. I tend to think I’m actually less well-adjusted now than I was in January, but I think that has to do with the stress of the quarter. One feature and one final project to go…