Media Psychology & Technology
Awe, the Unknown and Science
Think of an experience you’ve had that inspires awe – seeing the night sky or a stunning landscape, for example. Part of that feeling is probably a sense of wonder at the vastness, the complexity and the mystery of the universe we live in. On some level, feeling awe is about appreciating how small we…
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Social Ostracism Linked to Internet Addiction
To understand people’s online behavior, it’s worth looking at what’s happening in their offline lives. That’s one takeaway from a new study published in the journal Psychiatry Research showing a relationship between social ostracism and internet addiction. Previous research has suggested that social factors play into excessive internet usage. As the authors point out, studies…
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Online Interventions Can Lower Stress Response
As far as practical steps you can to take to improve your mental health, you could do worse than learning some new techniques for coping with stress. Stress is something we deal with in multiple parts of our lives, and finding healthy ways to manage stress can lead to real improvements in quality of life.…
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Dark Personality Traits and Internet Usage
It’s a common recognition these days that the internet has a dark side. The anonymity, lack of face-to-face interaction, and low amount of effort required are all a natural fit for the less noble side of human nature. Psychologists researching the relationship between the dark side of the internet and the dark side of the…
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Can Dying in Virtual Reality Change Your Life?
Many people who have near-death experiences report coming away with a new perspective on their lives. From a scientific standpoint, we don’t know much about how this works because it’s hard to study near-death experiences systematically. To quote the authors of a new study on near-death experiences, “it is impossible to design a scientific study…
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Facebook Posts Can Predict Depression Risk
We tend to curate our Facebook profiles to control the image we project. But a new study suggests that when it comes to mental health, our Facebook posts might be more revealing than we realize. In the study, researchers in Philadelphia, PA and Stony Brook, NY looked to see if they could identify people with…
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The Psychological Toll of Taking a Selfie
Snapping a selfie might seem like the most frivolous, inconsequential act. But on a deeper level, selfies are potentially tied up with questions of how we see our bodies and present ourselves to others. Posting a selfie to social media might be a more emotionally loaded behavior than it seems at first glance, an idea…
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Viral Outrage Can Make People More Sympathetic
It’s a familiar pattern now: first, someone says something offensive online. Then their ill-advised social media post goes viral, subjecting them to trial by Twitter and Facebook. Paradoxically, because the consequences of viral outrage can come to seem out of proportion with the initial offense, this process might ultimately make the person who made the…
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Exploring Social Media’s Impact on Human Psychology
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn….there seem to be more social networks popping up every day for us to login, create a profile and connect. Initially this seems fun and harmless, an easy way to get back in touch with long lost friends from elementary or high school or stay in touch with family on different coasts. …
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