Washington: According to a new study, liking on Facebook is good for teens' stress, but being liked is not so much.
Facebook can have positive and negative effects on teens levels of a stress hormone, say researchers at the University of Montreal and the Institut universitaire de sante mentale de Montreal.
Led by Professor Sonia Lupien, the team found that having more than 300 Facebook friends increased teens' levels of cortisol. On the other hand, 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.
The preliminary nature of our findings will require refined measurement of Facebook behaviors in relation to physiological functioning and we will need to undertake future studies to determine whether these effects exist in younger children and adults, Lupien said.
Lupien noted that developmental analysis could also reveal whether virtual stress is indeed 'getting over the screen and under the skin' to modulate neurobiological processes related to adaptation.
Their findings are published in Psychoneuroendocrinology.
