Emotional Contagion Spread Through Facebook

Daniel_Stuckey sends this quote from Motherboard: It hopefully doesn't come as a surprise that your friends shape who you are. But we tend to think of that on a micro level: If your close circle of friends tends to have tattoos, wear polo shirts, or say "chill" a lot, it's quite possible that you'll emulate them over time — and they'll emulate you too. But what happens on a macro scale, when your friend circle doesn't just include the dozen people you actually hang out with regularly, but also the hundreds or thousands of acquaintances you have online? All of those feeds may seem filled with frivolities from random people (and they are!) but that steady stream of life updates — photos, rants, slang — are probably shaping you more than you think. A massive Facebook study recently published in PNAS found solid evidence of so-called emotional contagion—emotional states spreading socially, like a virus made of emoji—on the social network.

Comments

Re:Turn off, tune out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Turn them off,
Tune them out.
Stay sane.

My thoughts exactly.

Re:huh

[Rob the Bold]

So given that I post lots of stuff but do not read stuff in the feed, that means I am the sole originator of lots of contagions?.

I think in medicine, you're referred to as a "disease carrier".

Re:Turn off, tune out.

[Anonymous Coward]

You can also have a facebook account and still stay sane: just restrict your use of the site to 1/2 times a week.

3.5 days still seems like a lot.