A new study out suggests that when we are looking through our friends’ updates, photos, etc. on Facebook, we show greater physiological evidence of pleasantness (as measured through facial muscle EMG responses). Why would we express more pleasantness when looking at specific information regarding one of our “friends” on Facebook?
The researchers divided Facebook behaviors into four different categories, but found that most people on Facebook spent time either social browsing — “browsing through a pool of information that involved more than one person or one type of information (e.g., the newsfeed page)” — or social searching. They suggest that social searching is different …