A recently released study by Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University in California seems to suggest that friendly interaction on social media can produce the same feelgood hormones as old fashioned face-to-face interaction. Zak’s study consisted of testing blood hormone levels both before and after 10 minutes of twitter use. Results showed that during the period of twitter use, oxytocin levels were raised, while stress hormones decreased. Increased oxycontin levels are often associated with making people more kind and empathetic to their fellow human beings. This is excellent news for all you social media addicts. One, you can argue that your online friends are just as good as your “real life” friends, so go ahead and throw that in the face of anyone that calls you a loser. Two, this offers you a perfect excuse to spend more time on twitter or Facebook. Mom or the boss yelling at you for being on Facebook chat all the time instead of doing actual work, or going to the park? You’re not being anti-social, you’re “working on your interpersonal skills”. Win! Read the full story at:

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/01/can-twitter-trigger-cuddle-hormone

In lighter news, there’s a new queen atop the Facebook throne, and her name is Lady Gaga. On Friday June 2^nd, 2010, the always fun to look at pop singer surpassed US President Barack Obama as the most “liked” living person on the site, with over 10 million users clicking the thumbs up. To put it in perspective, only five pages of any type have more “likes”, while only one other individual (Michael Jackson) passes Gaga on the like scale. Gaga posted a video message on her page thanking her “little monsters” (as she calls her fans) for the support. So as America turns the ripe old age of 234 this weekend, her president is defeated in popularity by a frequently pants-less pop star. Ain’t that America.

Check out Gaga’s thank you video to her fans at www.facebook.com/ladygaga