Mental Health

The Dark Side Of Twitter Revealed In a New Study

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Jul 03, 2014 09:04 AM EDT

554 million active users make Twitter as one of the most popular social networking sites. Active users who are in a romantic relationship may find that conflicts on Twitter cause relationship problems that can become serious enough to result in infidelity or divorce, according to a new study. 

The new study presents the findings of a study designed to characterize the relationship between active Twitter use, Twitter-related conflict, and negative relationship outcomes. 

The study based its findings on the evaluations such as the among of time a person spent on Twitter, how much conflict arose between couples as a result of active Twitter usage, and whether negative relationship outcomes were associated with active Twitter use and Twitter-related conflict, according to the press release. 

The study found that active Twitter use and Twitter-related conflict were positively associated with an increase in emotional and physical cheating, breakup and divorce and these outcomes were independent of the length of romantic relationship. 

"Since much of the social networking research is in its infancy, we do not know if other media, such as Instagram will also impact relationships in a negative way," said Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California, in the press release.

The article is published online on the  Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website. 

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