Twitter revolutionizes the way we get connected to people. For those unfamiliar with Twitter, it is a microblogging social networking site where you can send out tweets in 140 characters to your followers. It’s the short messaging service of the new age. Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregistered users can only read them.
February this year, Twitter has surpassed 241 million monthly active users, with 500 million Tweets sent per day.
However, a new study suggests that active use of the social networking site may led to heartbreak and even divorce.
If you find yourself in a complicated relationship, maybe it’s time to log off from Twitter.
A new research from the University of Missouri directly links Twitter’s usage to relationship conflicts. According to this research, the more you use Twitter, the more likely you are to get into arguments with your partner, which may eventually lead to cheating, and even divorce.
Russel Clayton, a student in this university conducted the research by surveying 581 Twitter users, all of them whom are in different age groups. Clayton asked them a number of questions about their Twitter behavior. Among these questions include:
- How often do you log onto Twitter?
- How often do you tweet and scroll down your newsfeed?
- How many times do you reply to your followers?
The answers on the above questions are then linked to the next set of questions about their relationships, including this one:
- How many times did you enter in an argument with your partner because of your Twitter use?
The pattern? The more you use Twitter, the more likely you fight with your partner.
And the more you fight with each other, the more likely that you break up, or if you are married – get divorced.
Of course, a number of factors can be attributed to relationships ending badly. From Clayton’s research, we can now add “being a heavy Twitter user” as another reason. On top of that, we can also add Facebook as one of the reasons, as Clayton did a similar study before with Facebook as the subject.
The summary? Heavy Facebook usage often cause relationships to break apart as well.
However, since the research was conducted in the United States, I am not sure if the same research will yield the same results in Asia, where the cultures, income, and other factors such as internet availability can also come into play.
Have you heard of anyone who breaks up because of their high social media activities?
Also read: Top 10 languages of tweets: English tops the chart, followed by Japanese