According to researchers in Taiwan, the answer is “Yes.”

    The researchers (Ko & Kuo, 2009) administered a 43-item self-report survey to 596 college students who were mostly between ages 16 and 22 and female (71 percent). The college students were young adults who had blogging experience, and specifically with blogging for the purpose of keeping a personal journal.

    The researchers found support for deeper self-disclosure from bloggers resulting in a range of better social connections. These included things such as a sense of greater social integration, which is how connected we feel to society and our own community of friends and others; an increase in social bonding (our tightly knit, intimate relationships); and social bridging — increasing our connectedness with people who might be from outside of our typical social network.

    They also hypothesized and found support from their data that when these kinds of social connections increase or grow deeper through blogging, a person will also feel a greater subjective sense of well-being or happiness.

    This research is consistent with prior research on personal writing (usually more privately, though) that finds that when people share their innermost thoughts of their moods or feelings with others through writing, they may gain greater social support and improve their social relationships and feelings of connectedness. There isn’t a whole lot of research into blogging, so this study is a valuable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of this behavior.

    The researchers also reminded us that since most people who read personal blogs are a person’s own friends and family, it’s likely that self-disclosure on those blogs will help them improve these existing relationships. Not only does blogging not diminish or interfere with existing social relationships, the researchers argue, but it enhances them and has the ability to actually improve them.

    I’ve seen this time and time again with some of my friends’ blogs — they share feelings and thoughts that I’d have a hard time getting from them in-person. Especially since many times people blog as they’re going through an emotional or difficult situation in their lives. It’s so much easier to blog about it as it’s happening than to try and call and talk to a half dozen close people by phone, repeating the same information and feelings time and time again (which can result in an emotional drain).

    I also see similar things happening in our online support groups. Those people who share their feelings and thoughts consistently over time seem to get more from the groups than those who only use them as a social group.

    Can blogging help you feel more connected with others and, in turn, increase your own sense of well-being and happiness? Apparently so, at least amongst college students. And even if the results don’t generalize quite so strongly to others, the data indicate a trend that suggests there continues to be benefits of journaling — whether public or private. Public journaling — blogging — however, results in the addition of these improvements in social connectedness, something you just can’t get from a private diary.

    根據臺灣研究人員的研究，答案是“肯定的。”

    研究人員（Ko & Kuo, 2009）利用一個由43項自述組成的調查，對596名年齡在16到22歲之間的在校大學生（女性占71%）進行了一次調查。在校大學生是有博客經驗的年輕人，特別是他們抱著記私人日記的目的寫博客。

    研究人員發現，博主更進一步的自我表露會導致更好的社會關系。這些社會關系包括很多方面，例如，更好地融入社會的感覺，這種感覺就是我們感覺到的與社會、朋友圈子、以及其他人之間的聯系方式；社會內部聯系的加強（我們那些非常重要、親密的社會關系）；社會外部聯系----加強了我們同日常社交網絡以外的人的聯系。

    研究人員還做出假設，并從數據中發現，當這類社會關系通過寫博客而增加或是變得更緊密時，博主也會感覺更滿意或是更快樂。

    該研究和之前有關個人寫作（但是，通常是指更私隱的寫作）的研究相符，那些研究發現，當人們通過寫作與他人分享自己最真實的感覺和情緒時，可能獲得更多的社會支持，并能改善社會關系以及自身的歸屬感。目前尚未有大量的研究涉及寫博客，所以，該研究對擴充知識和了解寫博克這一行為頗具價值。

    研究人員還提醒我們，因為大多數讀博客的人，都喜歡讀自己朋友和家人的博客，所以這些博客的自我表露能幫助他們改善現有的社會關系。研究人員認為，寫博克不但不會減少或妨礙已經存在的社會關系，反而能加強人與人之間的聯系，實實在在地改善他們的關系。

    我一次又一次地翻看一些朋友的博客，他們用博客分享自己的感覺，自己的思想，這些都是我平時很難知道的。尤其是，人們總在情緒化時或是生活中出現困難時寫博克。當事情發生時用博客的方式記錄下來比拿起電話向一個又一個親密的人一遍又一遍訴說更容易（這會導致情緒耗竭）。

    我也看到類似的事情發生在我們的網絡圈子里。與那些僅把博客當成一個社會團體的人相比，一直樂于與人分享自己感受和思想的人從網絡圈子中收獲的似乎更多。

    寫博客是否讓你覺得與他人有更多的聯系？進一步而言，寫博客是否讓你感覺更滿意更快樂？答案顯然是肯定的。至少，對在校大學生而言如此。而且，就算這個結果對其他人群而言沒有很強的說服力，這些數據也顯示一個趨勢，持續記日志有好處----無論是公開的還是私下的。然而，公開日志----博客----還能改善社會系，這是私人日記所達不到的。