We often preach the powers of blogging for business in these pages. We’ve seen dozens of clients transform their digital marketing by diving head first into blog creation and blog marketing. So we know that blogging can be good for your brand. But could it also be good for your soul? A new study says blogging could help eliminate stress, anxiety and depression — especially in teenagers.
According to the New York Times, a study published in Psychological Services, a mental health industry journal, finds that teenagers who blogged found comfort in the online community aspect of the platform and preferred it over the traditional venting in a journal or diary.
“To track teenagers’ experiences with blogging, the researchers randomly surveyed high school students in Israel and selected 161 of them (124 girls and 37 boys, a significant gender skew) who exhibited some level of social anxiety or stress,” Pamela Paul of the Times writes. “The teenagers, who averaged 15 years old, said they had difficult making new friends or relating to their existing friends.”
The teens were then split up into six groups.
“The first two groups were asked to blog about their social difficulties, with one group asked to open their posts to comments. The second two groups were asked to blog about whatever struck their adolescent fancy; again, with one group allowing comments. All four groups were told to write in their blogs at least twice a week. As a control, two more groups were told to keep either an old-fashioned print diary or to do nothing at all,” Paul reports.
Psychologists then combed over the blogs and responses and conducted interviews with the teen bloggers themselves.
“In all the groups, the greatest improvement in mood occurred among those bloggers who wrote about their problems and allowed commenters to respond,” Paul notes.
In short, talking about their problems and receiving comments back helped teens actually feel less tortured and more happy.
So can blog writing for your company make you, Mister or Miss Marketer Pants, feel better? Probably. Blogging about our company and the news stories that affect our industry is hopefully something we’re passionate about. Therefore, sharing our passions with others and engaging in the comments section about said passions can’t help but make us feel better. And for another thing, the increased visibility that blogging brings our brand is sure to put a smile on our faces. Lastly, knowing that our blogs are being read and starting discussions is certainly a recipe for happiness.
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