So, it has come to this. Facebook can be an indicator of your psychological state, says a new study done at the University of Missouri. More than 200 college students were asked to print out their Facebook activity and given the option to redact anything they chose from their timeline. The portions that they concealed were just as psychologically revealing as what they opted to share, the researchers found.
“The Internet is novel way to study human psychology because it can ameliorate some of the self-report biases associated with paper-and-pencil reports … Because of the real or imagined perception of anonymity, the Internet may allow unique access to the psyche,” said researcher Elizabeth Martin.
Source: medicalnewstoday
The mental health “findings” ranged from social anhedonia –people with a reduced desire to interact with others — to paranoia. Although therapists aren’t currently using Facebook as a diagnostic tool, they may start doing so in the future. Great. There’s no safe place to be crazy anymore. I wonder what it means if I post mostly stuff that I wrote on my timeline. That I’m a narcissist? [Mashable]
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