Can Blogging Make You Happier?

I have on occasions said that this blog is a form of therapy for me and that through it I have developed a cyberspace support network that has helped me get through some very dark days. My online circle of friends has likely saved my life, in fact, during times that I was most beaten down by the anti-gay bias and homophobia I experienced in my divorce case (which sadly, continues to be an issue and which at times makes taking a bottle of pills look like an attractive option). Now a new study on bloggers seems to confirm that I am not the only one who derives positive emotional benefits from blogging. While the study involved college students, I believe that the benefits are not limited to those in that age bracket. Here are some highlights from PsychCentral:

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Can blogging make you happier? According to researchers in Taiwan, the answer is “Yes.” The researchers (Ko & Kuo, 2009) administered a 43-item self-report survey to 596 college students who were mostly between ages 16 and 22 . . . . The college students were young adults who had blogging experience, and specifically with blogging for the purpose of keeping a personal journal.

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The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections. These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network.

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They also hypothesized and found support from their data that when these kinds of social connections increase or grow deeper through blogging, a person will also feel a greater subjective sense of well-being or happiness.

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Can blogging help you feel more connected with others and, in turn, increase your own sense of well-being and happiness? Apparently so, at least amongst college students. And even if the results don’t generalize quite so strongly to others, the data indicate a trend that suggests there continues to be benefits of journaling — whether public or private. Public journaling — blogging — however, results in the addition of these improvements in social connectedness, something you just can’t get from a private diary.