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.

    根据台湾研究人员的研究，答案是“肯定的。”

    研究人员（Ko & Kuo, 2009）利用一个由43项自述组成的调查，对596名年龄在16到22岁之间的在校大学生（女性占71%）进行了一次调查。在校大学生是有博客经验的年轻人，特别是他们抱着记私人日记的目的写博客。

    研究人员发现，博主更进一步的自我表露会导致更好的社会关系。这些社会关系包括很多方面，例如，更好地融入社会的感觉，这种感觉就是我们感觉到的与社会、朋友圈子、以及其他人之间的联系方式；社会内部联系的加强（我们那些非常重要、亲密的社会关系）；社会外部联系----加强了我们同日常社交网络以外的人的联系。

    研究人员还做出假设，并从数据中发现，当这类社会关系通过写博客而增加或是变得更紧密时，博主也会感觉更满意或是更快乐。

    该研究和之前有关个人写作（但是，通常是指更私隐的写作）的研究相符，那些研究发现，当人们通过写作与他人分享自己最真实的感觉和情绪时，可能获得更多的社会支持，并能改善社会关系以及自身的归属感。目前尚未有大量的研究涉及写博客，所以，该研究对扩充知识和了解写博克这一行为颇具价值。

    研究人员还提醒我们，因为大多数读博客的人，都喜欢读自己朋友和家人的博客，所以这些博客的自我表露能帮助他们改善现有的社会关系。研究人员认为，写博克不但不会减少或妨碍已经存在的社会关系，反而能加强人与人之间的联系，实实在在地改善他们的关系。

    我一次又一次地翻看一些朋友的博客，他们用博客分享自己的感觉，自己的思想，这些都是我平时很难知道的。尤其是，人们总在情绪化时或是生活中出现困难时写博克。当事情发生时用博客的方式记录下来比拿起电话向一个又一个亲密的人一遍又一遍诉说更容易（这会导致情绪耗竭）。

    我也看到类似的事情发生在我们的网络圈子里。与那些仅把博客当成一个社会团体的人相比，一直乐于与人分享自己感受和思想的人从网络圈子中收获的似乎更多。

    写博客是否让你觉得与他人有更多的联系？进一步而言，写博客是否让你感觉更满意更快乐？答案显然是肯定的。至少，对在校大学生而言如此。而且，就算这个结果对其他人群而言没有很强的说服力，这些数据也显示一个趋势，持续记日志有好处----无论是公开的还是私下的。然而，公开日志----博客----还能改善社会系，这是私人日记所达不到的。