Got bad news? Don't share it on Twitter! Sharing news on social media makes event feel more 'real', study claims

Many of us take to Twitter and Facebook to share our excitement when we have good news.

But bad news is different. Whether it be a break up, job loss or illness, a phone call is still our preferred choice of communication.

Now a recent study has found, despite the popularity of social media, we still deliberately choose traditional forms of communication when our news will have a negative impact.

 

This could be down to the fact that sharing bad news on social media makes us feel worse, while sharing good news gives us a high as it makes the event feel more 'real'.

The study, conducted by the researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, involved looking at the sharing habits of 300 undergraduate students at the university.

Participants shared positive news across several forms of media, such as through texts or Twitter, because the information spreads quickly, and gets a response quickly.

When it came to bad news, participants preferred calling instead of posting their feelings for the world to see.

Social sharing is very widespread, says study author Catalina Toma, an assistant professor of communication arts. 'It's almost like the event is not even real until you tell somebody,' she says.

The study found that participants strategically chose the media that could meet their psychological needs.

When experiencing positive events, people preferred to share via texting and Twitter, because both media are easily accessible from smartphones and are nonintrusive in that friends don't have to reply immediately.

When experiencing negative events, people could justify interrupting their friends and preferred using the telephone, a more intrusive medium.

'You often hear people say when the phone rings, it's bad news,' Professor Toma says. 'Our data support that.'

The researchers also found that social sharing via media enhanced the emotional tone of the event. Sharing a positive event increased its impact, an effect known as capitalisation.

'Telling somebody makes you even happier,' Professor Toma says.

But if you feel sad because you had a lousy trip to the dentist or a fight with your spouse and post something about it on Facebook, you will not feel better.

Regardless of which form of media people in the study used to share bad news, they felt worse - though sharing by telephone had the smallest negative effect

'When something positive happens, you want to tell it right away,' Professor Toma says.

'Examining how people share their important personal events through new media and how they feel as a result of it is a golden opportunity to learn how humans work.'