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Facebook.  Love it or hate it, we all usually sign on at least occasionally. But now a new study says that it can find you a job -- depending on who's your friend.   And where you live. But whether you should concentrate your networking on your numerous “weak ties,” which is how most jobs are found, or a single “strong tie” who will champion your cause depends in part on the country in which you live, according to newswise.com. Research from Tufts University found that the role of weak and strong ties in job searches is important around the world, but the value of a single strong tie is even more important for job seekers in countries with pronounced income inequality, such as South Africa, Nicaragua, and Haiti. Conversely, it turns out that a single strong tie is not as important for job seekers in countries with greater socio-economic equality, such as Sweden, Slovenia, and the Netherlands. “In many ways, the results tell us the best way to use your ne...

Now this is weird. You know all those people who are constantly checking Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and all those other texting sites? Well, they're not just annoying.  They may be sleep-deprived. It's an odd correlation but a new study links compulsive Facebook checking to lack of sleep. Say what? Apparently, University of California, Irvine, researchers have found that, if you find yourself toggling over to look at Facebook several dozen times a day, it’s not necessarily because the experience of being on social media is so wonderful. It may be a sign that you’re not getting enough sleep, according to newswise.com. n a recently completed study, researchers at the University of California, Irvine demonstrated that lack of sleep – in addition to affecting busy college students’ moods and productivity – leads to more frequent online activities such as browsing Facebook. “When you get less sleep, you’re more prone to distraction,” says lead researcher...

Admit it.  Who isn't a little sick of all the selfies? People eating in restaurants.  Pouring wine. Throwing a snowball (that's just in the Northeast).  A Real Housewife who claims she has Lyme disease posting IVs and other medical appliances plugged into her pasty body. Now a new study is finding that too many can plug up your romantic life, too. Researchers have found that too many Instagram selfies may create romantic conflict, according to newswise.com.  Florida State University researchers have discovered the more selfies an individual posts on the social media site Instagram, the greater the likelihood he or she might experience romantic relationship conflict and dissolution.   “Although we cannot directly assume cause and effect due to the correlational nature of this study, the results here show that body image satisfaction can be detrimental to Instagram users’ romantic relationships, especially when users’ body image satisfaction is prom...

I find this a little hard to believe but a new study has found that social networks are as important in our lives as diet and exercise. The more social ties people have at an early age, the better their health is at the beginnings and ends of their lives, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, newswise.com reports. The study is the first to definitively link social relationships with concrete measures of physical wellbeing such as abdominal obesity, inflammation, and high blood pressure, all of which can lead to long-term health problems, including heart disease, stroke and cancer. “Based on these findings, it should be as important to encourage adolescents and young adults to build broad social relationships and social skills for interacting with others as it is to eat healthy and be physically active,” says Kathleen Mullan Harris, James Haar Distinguished Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and faculty fellow at the Carolina Population ...

I have a friend who posts everything she does -- from the restaurants where she drinks wine (holding up the glass to prove it) to the meals she prepares in her kitchen to the new car she bought with a convertible top (posed with a Santa cap and the top down at Christmas), angling for likes. I guess you would say she's dependent on Facebook Now a new study says that if what drives you to Facebook is feedback on your posts, or even just news, or games, yup.  You're hooked.  But that's not necessarily a bad thing, says Amber Ferris, an assistant professor of communication at The University of Akron's Wayne College. at newswise.com. Ferris, who studies Facebook user trends, says the more people use Facebook to fulfill their goals, the more dependent on it they become. She is quick to explain this dependency is not equivalent to an addiction. Rather, the reason why people use Facebook determines the level of dependency they have on the social network. The study...

Want some reasons to break up with Facebook?  Experts say there are four but I'm sure you can think of many more.  The time your (ex) fiance changes his listing back to "single" (and this is before he tells you!). The time you learned (as I have, many times) about the parties your kid's not invited to.  The endless stream of kids making high honors, or slugging the winning ball or hot beach vacations when you were just jumped by a loose dog and had your cell phone stolen, to boot (read: me).   New research from Cornell Information Science discovered four reasons why our relationship with Facebook is complicated, according to newswise.com: • Perceived addiction – Those who feel that Facebook is addictive or habitual were more likely to return, according to the group’s research. One participant described this habitual aspect by saying, “In the first ten days, whenever I opened up an Internet browser, my fingers would automatically go to 'f'.” • Priv...

Admit it.  Seeing 50 likes on our Facebook post thrills us(I'm lucky to see five!). But a new study has found that, for kids, liking something is a lot less stressful than being liked.  Huh? According to newswise.com, liking on Facebook is good for teens' stress levels, but not so much being liked. In fact, teens who have more than 300 Facebook friends have higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, researchers say. As we all know, Facebook can have positive and negative effects on us, and teens' levels of the stress hormone, say researchers at the University of Montreal and the Institut universitaire de santé mentale de Montréal.  Too many likes hikes the levels of cortisol.  But teens who act in ways that support their Facebook friends – for example, by liking what they posted or sending them words of encouragement – decreased their levels of cortisol.  Makes sense.  I've always found that it makes me feel good to help others feel the s...

Who would have thought? "Friending" your doctor on Facebook might not be such a good thing. For quite a while it's been an option for many physicians and patients.  I have to admit I like it.  But now a new study is saying that maybe, duh, we might want to reconsider. That's because, obviously, it can blur the lines in your relationship.  And not surprisingly, doctors may not like seeing your dog drinking Starbucks from a paper cup flash on their Facebook screens. The findings from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers suggest a disconnect between what patients expect and what physicians – concerned about confidentiality and being overwhelmed in off-hours – are willing to do when it comes to online dialogue. “The medical establishment needs to figure out how best to incorporate this reality into their practice while properly ensuring security safeguards,” says study leader Joy Lee, PhD, MS, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department ...

Who'd have guessed?  Men are more jealous when a member of their own sex uses an emoticon in a text to their significant other than women. According to new research,“Men were more jealous when emoticons—specifically winking ones—were included in messages to their significant other,” says Dr. Denise Friedman, associate professor and chair of psychology at Roanoke College, and author of the study. She adds that women were more jealous when there were no emoticons. Say what?   Now I'm lucky because my husband hates computers and only uses one when he absolutely has to.  A few years ago his office moved to electronic medical records and he was forced, kicking and screaming, to enter the digital age.  He wouldn't know an emoticon from a leprechaun. Men and women also reacted in different ways, depending on how the study questions were asked, according to newswise.com. Women reported more Facebook jealousy in general, especially when surveyed, but men reporte...

I admit I do it, too.  In fact, I just did it last week, when my son gave a brief talk at Princeton (yes, University) at age 13.  The reality is that Princeton was just the location of the talk, but he did give it to an audience of IEEE members. That's The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (to people like me who can't even pronounce double-precision floating point format), and yes, we were very proud. So, of course, the minute we got home, I put it up on Facebook, and went on to get over 30 likes (hey, I know, not much, but it's the most I've ever gotten!). And now researchers are saying this isn't such a good idea.   “By the time children are old enough to use social media themselves many already have a digital identity created for them by their parents,” says Sarah J. Clark , M.P.H., associate director of the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health and associate research scientist in the ...

Does Facebook make you lonely?  For me, it does when I see all the parties I'm not invited to.  But beyond that, a new study has found that only the lonely use it the most. Not so surprising, but, according to newswise.com, a new study has found that, though social media was supposedly developed to bring people closer together, it may just be the people who are the most distanced from others who are drawn to it. There is a relationship between Facebook use and loneliness. The researchers concluded that relationship exists because the feeling of loneliness brings its users to Facebook, rather than because Facebook makes people lonely. The researchers chose to focus on Facebook because it is by far the most popular online social media site, with people using it to share personal information, meet people and develop friendships, according to the study. The use of Facebook – at home and at work – accounts for 54 percent of users’ time online globally and 62 percent...

Admit it. When you've had a bad day, don't you want to go on Facebook and see that your work friend's car slid off the driveway in the ice storm and smashed into a tree?  Or your college pal's getting a divorce?  Or the neighbor who never waves back has her windows shaving-creamed on Halloween. OK, so maybe you have friends like I do, who only post wedding anniversaries in the Caribbean (we had our 20th at Kozi's) or children who get 1600s on their SATs.  But a new study says, if you're in a bad mood, chances are your best bet is to head to Facebook and find someone else who's worse off, according to newswise.com. When people are in a bad mood, they are more likely to actively search social networking sites like Facebook to find friends who are doing even worse than they are, the study suggests. Researchers found that, in general, people use social media to connect with people who are posting positive and success-oriented updates. “But when ...

This is kind of surprising.  Shy people use Facebook longer, but disclose less on it. According to a new study , it’s the quiet ones who are logging in longer, says an assistant professor in the Communications Arts Department at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) at newswise.com. “The shy people spend more time on Facebook, but they disclose less information,” says Dr. Pavica Sheldon, who has done several studies on use of the social media site by university students.  "I'll poke you. You'll poke me!" Self-disclosure, social attraction, predictability and trust are important predictors of Facebook relationships, says another expert. Makes sense to me.  I must confess, I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to confronting people.  But I do it well on the Web.  It's much easier to say things (but sometimes unwise) in writing than face-to-face.  I don't think I'd ever break up with someone by texting but I hear it's been done.  A l...

Guess where people like to share good news? A new study has found that, when experiencing positive events, people preferr to share via texting and Twitter, because "both media are easily accessible from smartphones and are non-intrusive in that communication partners don’t have to reply immediately," according to newswise.com. When experiencing negative events, people prefer using the telephone, a more intrusive medium. “You often hear people say when the phone rings, it’s bad news,” study author Catalina Toma, an assistant professor of communication arts at UW-Madison, says at newswise.com.“Our data support that.” The team also found that social sharing via media enhanced the emotional tone of the event. Sharing a positive event increased its impact. “Telling somebody makes you even happier,”she says, adding that “It’s almost like the event is not even real until you tell somebody." But if you feel sad because you had a lousy trip to the dentist...

I've always wondered why.  Meals prepared for company.  A child's A in Spanish (guilty!).  A million pictures of a vacation (OK, so I was jealous). Why do people post these things on Facebook? Now researchers may know.  According to a new study, people may do it to express feelings you don’t normally feel comfortable sharing with other people. And some of us feel more comfortable expressing ourselves to hundreds of Facebook acquaintances than to a few face-to-face, in-the-flesh friends, according to research by Albright College assistant professor of psychology Gwendolyn Seidman, Ph.D. Newswise.com reports that Seidman discovered that people "who are more comfortable expressing their true self online will post on Facebook more often and will post more personally revealing information and emotional content." These people, said Seidman, are more likely to be seeking attention, acceptance and validation from others. But do they get it?  No, says the ...

Love it.  So this is what some employers're thinking should be your routine for the day.  Really. Check what? That's right.  A survey has found that "'homing from work' may be the key," according to smartplanet.com.  New research by digital media firm Captivate Network shows that "merging work and your personal life in office hours may be the best method to not only maintain a better work-life balance, but also increase productivity while you're at your desk." I remember trying to sneak onto msnbc.com (and yes, QVC, for the Today's Special Value, just might have that sheet set that I need), when I worked at a desk in an office.  Then employers switched to software that could track your every move so I had to stop.  (Strangely enough, working from home, I never check either!) smartplanet.com notes that the company compared answers given in a survey this year to one two years previously. As a result, "There was an 11 percent incre...

Got a migraine that won't quit?  Your five-year-old won't stop bashing his sister in the head with a truck? Your 20th high school reunion is coming up and you're 40 pounds heavier? Tweets can temper your problems.  According to a new  study , sharing your pain with other sufferers can help alleviate some of the discomfort and stress. "As technology and language evolve, so does the way we share our suffering," newswise.com quotes principal investigator Alexandre DaSilva, assistant professor and director of the Headache and Orofacial Pain Effort at University of Michigan School of Dentistry. "It's the first known study to show the instant and broad impact of migraine attacks on modern patients' lives by decoding manually each one of their individual attack-related tweets." Say what?  Simply put, put your agony out there and you are sure to find fellow sufferers. I remember the old bulletin boards that were the precursor of Twitter and Faceb...

Which side are you on?   Texting at the table or not?  Taking a call while eating dinner or should that be forbidden?  According to a recent study, 84 percent of Americans say both are a no-no, and 87 percent say never, with guests.  Yet, why do we still see so many people doing it? Out to dinner not long ago, we sat near a couple, so intent on their smartphones, they only spoke to the waiter, telling him what they wanted.  Sherry Turkle writes today at The New York Times that we are so busy documenting our lives, with our selfies and blogs and Facebook posts about everything we do from brushing our teeth to listening to certain songs to what we ate for dinner (who cares?), that we don't live.   Turkle says we just don't talk any more.  " We interrupt conversations for documentation all the time," she writes. Or worse, observe.  Reflect.  Think. "A selfie, like any photograph, interrupts experience to mark the moment. In this, it sh...

So now I get it.  It's that electric jolt I get when my views top 75 (OK, only once, but come on, people, tell your friends about this blog!).  Facebook is our high. An op-ed in The Sunday Review put it the best:  we love the instant approval we get when we post something and our friends immediately respond.   The essay was mostly about the bad things Facebook encourages us to do, like pose in a thong, when  mommy panties make more sense, or post how much you hate your boss, or, to me, the worst, deface places like the Grand Canyon or saguaros in the desert just so you can post it online.  But as Jenna Wortham puts it, "That feedback loop of positive reinforcement is the most addictive element of social media." Whether you're a mom posting your son's championship baseball win, or your latest cedar-planked salmon, let's face it.  It feels good when friends come back with praise and accolades. “For people who get a lot of motivation out of knowi...

Great.  Now that the world knows, thanks to the Web, that I fill my prescriptions at Walgreen's, buy my running shoes at New Balance, and order my Christmas flank steak from QVC, it's going to help me lose weight on Facebook. That's right.  According to Health Works Collective, Johnson & Johnson  will use Facebook to "monitor obesity prevalence." Now no one I know would call me obese, so why am I getting this?  Most likely because I visit Weight Watchers' sites, but come on! Quoting a recent study from PLOS ONE, J&J graduate fellow Stephen Shie writes that public health workers can use Facebook to survey the pervasiveness of obesity. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health "found that higher proportion of the population with activity-related interests on Facebook was associated with a significant lower predicted prevalence of obese and overweight people across the United States metro areas as well as across New York City neig...