PsychBook Research

Collecting and analysing psychological research on the most popular social networking site in the world today.

Archive for the 'Media' Category

Grief doesn’t have to be solitary: using Facebook friends to overcome loss

It’s not often I come across material that is genuine and emotional but also relevant for this blog. Below is a link from a clinical psychologist, describing how she used Facebook to help her get over the death of her father. Whereas previously, she didn’t think much of it professionally (although admitting it was a […]

15 May 2010 at 13:05 - Comments

Why Facebook is #1 – the most healthy bill in the world! And how!

Social media scientist (his words) Dan Zarella has compiled some very curious datamining results from Facebook. Among which are what he reckons to be: – the best days to share – the effects of digits on sharing – the effect of readability on sharing – and the most and least ‘shareable’ words on Facebook   […]

14 May 2010 at 16:00 - Comments

The fact that I’m ambivalent about Facebook says it all

Apparently, there is a generational difference in how people perceive Facebook, over the last six weeks at least. In that time period, Facebook’s ‘buzz’ has dropped in the +35 age group, but risen in the 18-34 group. With thanks to the pollsters at YouGov BrandIndex Older Users Hear Facebook Is Bad News [STATS]

14 May 2010 at 09:47 - Comments
Shane McLoughlin
If this were true, my mother isn't one of them. Never gets off facebook. Thinks viruses are a myth. Typical.
14 May 10 at 16:08

More privacy issues: this almost encourages bitchiness

From Steven O’Hear at TechCrunch Europe, my eyes popped out of my head when I read this – and it’s a feature, not a flaw. As an example, a privacy quirk on Facebook appears to produce the following scenario: User A sends a friend-request to user B but they choose not to accept, at least […]

10 May 2010 at 18:23 - Comments
AAAAND ya can't recall your friend request. So person B can shun person A for AGES. eh... I presume, ahem.
10 May 10 at 21:48
Happily, you can actually recall a friend request, but it's not very easy. You have to go to your profile,…
11 May 10 at 00:50

Why you should probably ‘enjoy’ Farmville and Mafia Wars while you can

As I mentioned before, Farmville and other social games, use sophisticated psychological mechanisms to keep you playing. But that might not continue for much longer on Facebook, as their major producer, Zynga, is having a bit of quarrel with Facebook, with the former threatening to leave. Zynga Gunning Up (And Lawyering Up) For War Against […]

8 May 2010 at 21:15 - Comments