Blogging and Online Journaling Increase Happiness According to New Research – What Do You Think?
Does online journaling, like the What Door Opened exercise, or personal blogging lead to increased happiness? According to research from Taiwan, yes.
Much of happier.com involves personal reflection on happiness exercises, assessment results and progress through the happiness plans. And some users choose to share these entries with trusted friends or to publish their What Door Opened stories in the happier.com public community forum. The Taiwanese study, and previous research, show that this type of writing leads to improved “social integration,’ “social bridging” and “social bonding” which lead to a greater sense of happiness.
Researchers are still studying how blogging and personal journaling increase happiness. What has your experience been? Feel free to leave a comment on this post.
References:
Ko, H-C. & Kuo, F-Y. (2009). Can blogging enhance subjective well-being through self-disclosure? CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(1), 75-79.
Grohol, John M. (2009). Can Blogging Make You Happier? PsychCentral, Feb., 16, 2009.
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So interesting!! Thanks for sharing things. I’m definitely tweeting this one.
Upon learning that we would be moving to South Carolina, 8 hours from friends and family of 40+ years, I got onto Blogger and created a blog. Initially this was to keep them in touch with what was happening with our family. What it became was a way for me to feel connected to them and others. This improved my overall mood and assisted in coping with the loss of my beloved community. As a licensed clinical social worker in private practice and as a person who needed a “pick me up”, I am in the camp that says, “Yes, blogging can make you happier.”
As with most psych studies the research was undertaken with undergraduates – this dosen’t necessarily mean that it will aplly to the rest of the world.
[...] September 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment Blogging and Online Journaling Increase Happiness According to New Research â What Do You… [...]
It works for me, and I finished my undergrad degree three years ago. I’m still young, and that may be part of the reason that whining at my word processor makes me feel better, but maybe not.
Writing requires me to organize my emotions into sentences. That helps me understand what I’m feeling. Then I can re-read what I wrote, and that often gives me a little objectivity, which, Heaven knows, I usually need.
Feeling connected to a community is known to be good for happiness. Most people who read my blog don’t comment, but even so, I can see how many people have visited each day, and often where they came from. All those silent visits make me feel like people care about what I have to say, which is also nice.
Kelly and Linnea – thanks for responding and for sharing stories of what works for you. I think that for a lot of us, when we read about new research or suggestions for what might work in the “real world” based on studies, it’s tough to determine if the material is relevant. As Wayne points out, what happens with undergrads on an [relatively] homogenous college campus in a carefully-constructed study isn’t necessarily applicable to the rest of us.
Hearing from you about how blogging and journaling has made an impact helps other readers determine what to spend time focusing on. Thanks again for sharing your stories, and for commenting on the blog.
Best,
-Andrew
happier.com
I have become a computer addict, corresponding with friends. Journaling my thoughts feelings, and goings-on has connected me to a world outside my single life. I have better relationships with friends by staying in touch. My friends are stretched across the US and one in England and one in New Zealand. This has given a whole new meaning to pen pals! And after having lost my sister and my mother 6 or 7 years ago, I have found wonderful friends to replace the happiness I felt with them!
I have found internet dating to be a bit of a challenge; knowing what to say and what not to say. How to keep a guy enticed and how to chase them away, accidentally or on purpose! Overall, I am happier! I hop out of bed in the morning to see who has written overnight. I get excited when I get mail! I can’t start my morning routine until someone has made my day by caring enough to write back. Whe I get mail, my day starts out great. When there is no mail, I am okay but a bit disappointed sometimes.
I love to write, and I am afraid others won’t want to read as much as I write! So I need to learn restraint, I suppose. I never realized how much I need attention to feel worthwhile!!
What we have to be careful about is letting happiness about research results lead us to over-generalizing our findings. I agree structured journaling, such as What Door Opened, can increase happiness. SOME personal blogging may do so as well. But . . .
Over-analyzing happy times can decrease their affective component, and over-experiencing negative incidents can increase their negativity. BOTH conditions — either of which can be accomplished via blogging — can decrease happiness levels.
For a research-based treatment of the situations described above, see Lyubomirsky and colleagues (2006). Using the right tool, at the right time, in the right fashion can indeed increase happiness. Good news! The caution is falling into a hammer/nail scenario.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sousa, L., & Dickerhoof, R. (2006). The costs and benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life’s triumphs and defeats. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 692-708.