Why you should call your mom more

Posted at 12:33 PM on January 6, 2012 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia, Tech

There were a significant number of interesting complaints about digital manners on this morning's Midmorning on MPR. There was the guy who objected to people taking pictures at his wedding and then posting them on Facebook instead of his professionally photographed images. There was the woman who gets annoyed when her texts aren't answered, and of course the loudmouth on the cellphone.

But a study shows what may be the biggest digital insult of all -- our communication tools are neutering the power of mom to make things better.

The study, reported on Wired.com, comes from the University of Wisconsin. It measured the effect of mom's voice on "girls who were stressed," separated by method of communication:

After finishing, the girls were assigned to one of four groups. One didn't talk at all to their mothers. Another group talked by phone, another had a face-to-face conversation, and another communicated by instant message. The researchers then measured their cortisol and oxytocin levels, and compared them to pre-test measurements.

As expected, girls who heard their mother's voice, either in person or on the phone, were consoled. But among girls who used IM, hormone levels barely changed. Translated into words on a screen, mom's words seemingly lost their comforting power.

The researcher suggests that mom's voice triggers soothing effects. What she actually says may be secondary.

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Comments (4)

I wish I had called my mom more :(

Posted by Disco | January 6, 2012 2:28 PM

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I'm going to call my Mom right now! I'm so lucky to still have her. Then I'll call my daughter and bug her...

Posted by Bonnie | January 6, 2012 2:43 PM

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I have a new college freshman daughter. This fall, during some trying times (I hate it here! I miss being home! etc etc) I found it worked best to combine talking and texting and email. She needed to hear me, but I could express my thoughts more thoroughly-without interruption-via text. And expand on them with email.

She's doing better now, thank you.

Posted by mombalabamba | January 7, 2012 1:19 PM

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Odd ly.

It is my mother who tells me it is my voice that relaxes her. Maybe becasue I spent much of my time with my grandmother as I was growning up.

Posted by This is NOT lucy | January 7, 2012 3:55 PM

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