Intense Facebook usage is found to have a positive effect on psychological well-being.

A recent study in Behaviour & Information Technology investigated the role Facebook use plays in the creation or maintenance of social capital among 800 students from 7 universities in South Africa. Empirical research has linked social capital to many positives in society, such as improved mental and physical health and economic well-being.

The study suggests a strong association between the intensity of Facebook use and perceived bridging, bonding and maintaining of social capital. Facebook usage was also found to interact with measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might be beneficial to students experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

Read the full article online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0144929X.2010.550063

‘Social capital: the benefit of Facebook ‘friends’’ features in a recent issue of Behaviour & Information Technology.

Apparently there was a new pope chosen yesterday but you probably wouldn't have caught the news as easily on Twitter. This is due to the uproar that was caused when Google announced the closure of Google Reader on July 1st 2013. Business people, Social Media enthusiasts, Gamers, Journalists and other peeps were just so outraged that Google Reader began trending on Twitter and is still trending at the time of writing! There was even a petition submitted set up and it currently has over 60,000 names!

We can only guess at the thinking behind this but I would hazard a guess that it has something to do with getting more people on Google +. Also lots of people sync their Google Reader feeds to other platforms and, of course, Google can't sell ad space on those. It seems a bit of a shame that this was such an abrupt affair. People have a lot of trust in the Google brand and I think something like this will have a negative impact.  If an increase Google + usage is the goal, why not integrate Google Reader with Google + then look at phasing it out over a longer period of time? July seems very sudden.

Then again Google Reader wasn't the most social of tools and RSS is almost 15 years old now! Maybe  it's just the next stage in our evolution of online media consumption. I guess we'll move to something which is targeted, customisable but also social....