In a recent study, 93 female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions regarding tweeting over a three day period. All participants received information over the three days regarding topical issues around sexism in politics, the media and in universities for them to tweet about. One group was required to tweet publicly, another privately and the third group did not tweet at all. They received no instructions regarding the number or the content of tweets they should undertake.
All participants completed mood questionnaires and wellbeing measures after they tweeted. Tweets were also analyzed for linguistic and emotional content. Emotions identified were: anger, discontent, sarcastic, shocked, surprise and sadness. The most common combination was surprise and discontent.
"Never knew there was this much sexism in politics! It's so disturbing! Shocked disgusted".
Analysis showed that the group of women who tweeted publicly displayed feelings of increased wellbeing by the third day. Neither of the other two groups showed any changes in wellbeing.
Dr. Mindi Foster of Wilfrid Laurier University said, "We know that popular online campaigns such as EverydaySexism have empowered women to speak out and share their experiences. However, this study demonstrates how tweeting publicly has the potential to improve women's wellbeing. More research is required to understand whether this form of collective action has any further health benefits."
Article: 'Tweeting about sexism: The well-being benefits of a social media collective action,' British Journal of Social Psychology http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/bjso.12101