Stress balls, nail-biting and meditation might be stress relievers of the past after a study showed blogging is a form of therapy for college-age students.
A recent study found bloggers receive positive psychological effects — similar to those of keeping a diary — from journaling their inner thoughts, but the engagement found in the online format offered even more benefits than the traditional pen-and-paper diaries.
Online blogging offers a method of organizing and condensing the writer’s thoughts that can often be beneficial, said Hans Meyer, an Ohio University journalism professor.
Meyer teaches Online Journalism Fundamentals, requiring students to create a blog and update it regularly throughout the quarter.
“(Students) usually use their blogs to talk about their life and to talk about new things they want to explore as a journalist,” Meyer said. “Having to condense their thoughts for an audience is seemingly very therapeutic for them.”
Meyer’s assessment aligns with a study published in Psychological Services by Meyran Boniel-Nissim and Azy Barak, professors from the University of Haifa in Israel.
In the study, 161 students were divided into six groups, two of whom blogged about emotional problems and two who blogged about whatever came to mind; the other two groups kept a print diary as a control group.
Psychologists analyzed the blog entries and determined that the greatest improvement in relative mood came from the group that blogged about their problems and had commenters respond.
Meyer said blogging is about connecting to somebody who wants to be noticed and be offered feedback.
Tyler Charles, one of Meyer’s former students, started his blog during the class in 2009 and has maintained it because of the connections he has built with his readers.
“I always try to ask people what they think about what I’m writing so that they can get involved in what I’m writing about,” Charles said. “It’s a good way for me to express and get feedback on some things that I’m interested in.”
OU junior Rachel Sawlin, another one of Meyer’s former students, continues to write the blog “The Shopaholic’s Diary,” which she started in the class.
“I would definitely say blogging is a stress reliever because it’s the one time where I can write about what I want to write about and in my own way. It’s not like writing a paper for a class or a news article,” Sawlin said. “The style of writing is much more carefree and relaxed, and I can be a lot more colorful with my writing, and the topic is something fun that I enjoy, so for me blogging is never stressful.”
Charles said the Online Journalism class he took in 2009 was one of the best classes he’s taken at OU and that Meyer played a big role in helping him find his passion.
“The class really just inspired me to look inside myself and find something that I was really passionate about,” he said. “And blogging is one of those things.”
jj360410@ohiou.edu
