The scientific community has been conducting extensive research lately into the effects that social networks have on our health and psychology. Facebook just revealed their own secret study where they determined that your mood can be altered for days based on the posts you see from others. They call this "emotional contagion" and it may indicate why someone's Facebook status might make you sick.

According to research by Lydia Emery and her colleagues at Haverford College, couples that post the most "highly disclosing" status updates are the least likeable says Gwendolyn Seidman, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Albright College, who studies relationships and cyberpsychology. She concurs with the study in a blog for Psychology Today but also adds that "in general, showing off your relationship on Facebook is a habit that happier couples are more likely to engage in." So where do you draw the line?

Seideman writes that people whose Facebook profiles indicate they are coupled, who have profile pictures of them and their significant others, and post couple photos and affectionate comments on their own and their partner’s timeline, are in fact the happiest and most satisfied couples online. However, she has also concluded through a study of her own that disclosing your most intimate thoughts on Facebook makes you less likable. Clearly there is a fine line between seeming satisfied, "trying too hard" and "showing off".

My advice for all the happy couples on Facebook is to maintain a healthy balance between your overtures online and your otherwise ordinary activity. What you say in your status update to your significant other could sicken someone who had no intentions of seeing it. I think its perfectly fine to celebrate your relationship with pictures, posts and updates that others might like to see but I suggest saving the most intimate of sayings for just yourselves.

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To read the original article for Psychology Today, click HERE.