Studies show oxytocin boost for people using social media

Here’s an interesting article from Fast Company about the boost in oxytocin found in people trusting and enjoying social media interchanges. Interesting! No wonder it can be so much fun and so addictive too.

“While there was overwhelming evidence that oxytocin played an important role in economic [online] transactions, I theorized it would also affect a person engaging on Facebook and Twitter. What is social networking but a social transaction? So Zak took my blood, I got on Twitter for 10 minutes, then he took it again, then compared to the two samples. In those intervening 10 minutes my levels of oxytocin had risen 13.2%–as much as a groom at a wedding. (My wife: “That’s pathetic.”)

Subsequently Zak traveled to Korea and redid my tweeting experiment, this time with three journalists using Facebook. The result: They all demonstrated increased levels of oxytocin. In fact, the oxytocin levels of one of the journalists, who was writing to his girlfriend, shot up nearly 150%. In other words, the brain’s release of oxytocin may correspond with the depth of connection between two people online.”

Check it the complete article.  Fast Company Article