Facebook (脸谱网) friends cannot replace the real thing, say psychologists(心理学家).
People are happier and laugh 50% more when they talk face to face with friends or via webcam (web camera) than when they use social networking sites, a study has found.
Dr. Roberts, a famous lecture at the University of Chester, said such websites don't appear to help make true friendships. Based on two questionnaires(调查表), he found there was no link between Facebook use and people with larger groups of friends.
Dr. Roberts, whose work will be presented at the British Psychological Society conference in Harrogate, said, "The bottom lime conclusion is that our relationships are not dependent on the quantity of communication. They depend on quality, and even Skype(一种网络即时语音沟通工具) is better at increasing the quality of our communication than time on Facebook." Even talking on the phone or texting does not make people feel as good as sharing a smile, the research says. The studies suggest quality, not quantity, of communication is the most important for keeping friends for life.
People find the most satisfying relationships come from a small number of close friends, with an outer "ring" of 10 significant others. With these people, it doesn't matter what type of social media you use for communication. But people who want to "contact the world at large" using Facebook can be disappointed because they spread themselves too thinly, claim researchers.
In a third study, Dr. Roberts asked people to communicate with friends face to face or via Skype and keep a 14-day diary. This was compared with communicating via phone, text messages or social networking sites. People communicating face to face on Skype were 50% more likely to laugh, and they rated themselves as significantly happier.
小题1: Dr. Roberts's finding that there was no connection between Facebook use and people with many friends was .
A．based on questionnaires
B．based on conversations
C．through instant messages
D．through social media小题2: What is the idea of the fourth paragraph?
A．Most people contact each other online.
B．Keeping a friend for life is not easy.
C．The quality of communication is important.
D．Skype is better at understanding us than Facebook.小题3: What does the underlined sentence in the fifth paragraph probably suggest?
A．They are too excited to express themselves.
B．They limit their social circle to a small range.
C．They spread their information at a low speed.
D．They lack information to introduce themselves.小题4: What is Dr. Roberts's attitude towards the use of Facebook?
A．Positive.
B．Casual.
C．Responsible.
D．Unsupportive.
