From an otherwise unremarkable NYTimes article on peer-to-peer rentals:
… Paul J. Zak, director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University in California, says… he conducted a preliminary experiment indicating that posting messages on Twitter caused the release of oxytocin, a neurotransmitter that evokes feelings of contentment and is thought to help induce a sense of positive social bonding. He is now testing those ideas in research on a group of 40 people.
__
The social interaction “reduces stress hormones, even through the Web,” he says. “You’re feeling a real physiological relationship to that person, even if they are online.”
Jamie
I’m still not gonna twitter
licensed to kill time
This thread isn’t about Rush? Oh, oxytocin !
danimal
What about the effects of posting to BJ?
Ahhhhhh, feel more connected already.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@danimal: I was going to say that he hasn’t bothered to look at BJ. If he comes here, he’ll throw the research away and become a monk.
Loneoak
Is that why DougJ frequents WaPo chats?
Lynne
So, researchers found out that people use Twitter because the people who use Twitter enjoy using it and possibly feel connected to people they talk to. Somehow these results seem a bit anti-climactic.
Stooleo
NYC community center is finally doing some PR.
AnotherBruce
@danimal:
Oh fuck off!
BGinCHI
Is Twitter a synonym for masturbation?
fasteddie9318
@BGinCHI:
According to John Hodgman’s last book, “PowerPointing” is the term you’re looking for.
Mike Kay (Team America)
remember the halcyon days when DKos used to be described as crack for liberals.
Gravenstone
How many other people read the title as Oxycontin?
/raises hand
martha
@Gravenstone: me too
Roger Moore
@danimal:
I expect it to raise levels of epinephrine and other stress hormones.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@Mike Kay (Team America): I need crack to keep up with what the new crack is.
kdaug
@Roger Moore: Only when the jackals disagree with you.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
Well, I’m going to be $10,000 lighter in the bank account, but at least my toilet was only out of service for about eight hours, rather than the three days they originally estimated.
Mike Kay (Team America)
coincidentally, Tiger Woods had to check into rehab because he could stop playing with his twitter.
Chad N Freude
I’ve been wondering why I bother to post comments here.
Chad N Freude
@Lynne: But it’s biochemistry!
asdf
I am looking forward to an unlimited supply of hillbilly heroin. They are going to cut my feet off someday soon. What do I have to look forward to, sex?
Mnemosyne
Very sad news: Cedric the Tasmanian devil had to be put to sleep after he caught the contagious cancer that is killing the species off. He had shown some immunity to it that made scientists hopeful, but no such luck. Back to square one.
Cat
Ecoterrist takes Discovery Channel hostage
Lone nut or part of a liberal conspiracy. Just sayin…
bobbo
I just heard a NYTimes reporter on Fresh Air saying that getting emails releases dopamine in the brain, and that while a little makes us feel good, a constant release of dopamine makes us depressed. So I think it’s a wash. (Or maybe the constant release of oxytocin also makes us depressed, in which case I predict everyone on Twitter will commit suicide.)
Chad N Freude
@bobbo: A lot of the emails I get are really depressing. Is their something amiss with my biochem?
Anoniminous
@Lynne:
The fact people who enjoy doing something self-reward by doing what it is that enjoy doing is a mind-blowing finding for economists. For anyone over the intellectual age of 16 – which excludes 98% of economists – it’s a NS, S moment and then we move on to something giving greater intellectual stimulation.
Like re-runs of Scooby-Doo.
beltane
@Gravenstone: I thought the same thing. Is there any information on which particular online community produces hashish-like effects? Is there a hallucinogenic website out there?
J sub D
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/police-gunman-holds-hostage-in-discovery-building-in-maryland/19617365?icid=main%7Cmain%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C167783
Thank Odin he isn’t one of those wacko tea partiers.
ETA – Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Mnemosyne
@J sub D:
That’s already being discussed in the thread below. Please try to keep up.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Um. Yeah. Wake me up when he a) Does a study with a MUCH larger group of people that involves two separate groups: Twitters & Talkers.
Anoniminous
@bobbo:
(whimper)
Yes. The brain releases dopamine when reading email. Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter for Working Memory … like, ya know, so you remember the first half of the sentence you have read when actively reading the last half?
This, in my opinion, is rather useful?
(Neurojournalism. jesus god & his little brother sid, get me the fuck off this planet o’ stupid.)
J sub D
@Gravenstone:
Sheepishly admits it.
Linda Featheringill
And we follow this blog because . . . . ?
Comrade Mary
Twitter / oxytocin / bonding / breastfeeding / Titter — aww, hell, could someone else please build this joke? Long day, fried neurons.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
You know what else makes you feel all warm and fuzzy?
Obsessing about the direct talks between Israel and Palestine!
No, not really. But if you’re interested, this being an Open Thread and all, I’ve waxed all angsty about it over at my place:
So. Israel, Palestine, direct talks.
kdaug
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): $10 wha-huh? What, did it blow out the side of your abode?
I just spent $30.00 (note the decimal point) to replace all of the non-ceramic pieces of my toilet. True, I did it myself. True, it was a giant pain in the ass. True, I had to resort to a detached hacksaw blade when the WD-40/Liquid Wrench route failed.
But ten grand on a frakin’ toilet? Next time, call me. I’ll take care of it for, say, eight grand.
J sub D
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne:
Sorry, I don’t live here. Thanks for the heads up.
Xecky Gilchrist
There’s also a feeling of satisfaction associated with releasing a long-pent-up fart. Coincidence?
Linda Featheringill
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
Israel-Palestine talks:
If somebody doesn’t solve the water problem in that part of the world, no peace treaty will be worth the paper it is written on.
The problem is more complex than dividing up the Jordan River. That part of the world already makes more demands on the water system that the system can provide, and things are likely to get worse in the future.
I’d like to see some water desalination plants stretched across the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Maybe even solar powered. And yes, there are ecological issues to be dealt with.
But really, just increase the water supply.
asdf
Wow.
If you ever want to know who you are, who you really are, just ask me.
Martin
Odd. Drinking whisky made from urine gives me the same sensation.
scav
aaah, well, actually I think I read it as oxytoxin which seemed an odd thing to name something that made you happy, although I guess killing off brain cells using alcohol might indicate otherwise.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@kdaug:
Oh, no. The leak was pretty standard. The fitting where the pipe from the kitchen joined the pipe from the bathroom rotted out and needed replacing. Simple, really. Or, it would have been, had that particular joint not been exactly halfway between the ceiling of the first floor and the floor of the second, behind both stacks from the toilets and under one of the support beams for the house. When the plumber came over to find the leak, he had to cut four holes in the wall upstairs and one downstairs before he could even see it.
At least, for my money, they’re rerouting all of this plumbing so that, should anything go wrong again, it will all be accessible. As well, they’re replacing the entire length of both stacks and much of the kitchen plumbing, thus easing my worries about the condition of the pipes.
El Cid
Situation resolved:
He will be portrayed 24/7 on the RW wurlitzer as a terrorist liberal.
kdaug
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): OK, that sounds a lot closer to a $10K job. Just remember – PVC is your friend.
bobbo
@Anoniminous:
Okay, but he was talking specifically about the moment you hear the “ding” in your inbox to alert you that an email has come in. Anyway, why the snark? What did I ever do to you?
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@kdaug: Actually, it sounds like about a $4,000 job, but they’re plumbers, so you have to multiply everything by 2.5.
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
@bobbo:
You were wrong. On the internet.
Maude
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN):
And you are right about the websites loading. I’ve been cursing with this.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Linda Featheringill: I think the only real answer has to be changing habits, as hard as that is to do.
Here’s a talk I once gave about the Jordan River Valley http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/the-jordan-politics-pollution-and-the-death-of-a-river/ and here’s a link to Friends of the Earth Middle East (to whom I often mistakenly refer as Friends of the Middle Earth!) and their thoughts on desalination (at least with regards to the Red Sea): http://foeme.org/www/?module=projects&project_id=51 (Generally, they’re a great source on all manner of water and environment issues in the region).
kdaug
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): Nah, plumbers aren’t the ones who are going to fix the five holes in the walls that it took to diagnose the problem. The apparent “overrun” is from the drywall/plaster/painter subs.
Anoniminous
@bobbo:
My comment was directed at the NY Times journalist, not you. You were merely collateral damage from the incontinent ordinance of my snark attack.
:-D
J sub D
@El Cid:
Yeah, he will be. If he had been a limited government fanatic, how would he be portrayed in the media? A terrorist libertarian? A terrorist teabagger?
Nah. Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman would never stoop so low. They’d merely be claiming that the Koch brothers or Sarah Palin has blood on their hands.
Face it, when the political talking heads get to mud wrestling in the sty, they all get filthy and they all look foolish.
Go Team Red!
Go Team Blue!
Xanthippas
I love you guys! No, really!
(No, really. This is true. I’m sad when people I like unfollow me on Twitter.)