DO you use Facebook a lot? Then this latest research will give you an excuse to use it even more.
A new study claims that using the social network site might increase your longevity.
Researchers from the University of California San Diego studied 12 million Facebook users and claim they may have found a link between online social interactions and longevity.
But there’s a catch. Scientists William Hobbs and James Fowler, who collaborated with colleagues at Facebook and Yale for the study, say this only applies when you have a real-world connection to your Facebook friends.
“Interacting online seems to be healthy when the online activity is moderate and complements interactions offline,” says Hobbs.
“It is only on the extreme end, spending a lot of time online with little evidence of being connected to people otherwise, that we see a negative association.”
The researchers trawled through six months of online activity of all the participants (born between 1945 and 1989) who were involved in the study.
They compared the activity of those still living to those who had died and came to a conclusion that, in a given year, the average Facebook user is about 12% less likely to die than someone who doesn’t use the site.
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But the researchers acknowledge they haven’t taken into account the social or economic differences between the user and non-user groups. They also point out this is an association study – based on observational data collected from the California Department of Public Health.
“Happily, for almost all Facebook users, what we found is balanced use and a lower risk of mortality,” said Fowler.
It appears Facebook users who accepted the most friendships and had large social networks lived the longer than those who had lesser number of friends on Facebook.
And those met their Facebook friends face-to-face, as evidenced by photos users uploaded on the site, had the greatest longevity – a finding consistent with classic studies of offline relationships and longevity.
“The association between longevity and social networks was identified by Lisa Berkman in 1979 and has been replicated hundreds of times since,” said Fowler.
“In fact, a recent meta-analysis suggests the connection may be very strong.
“Social relationships seem to be as predictive of lifespan as smoking, and more predictive than obesity and physical inactivity.
“We’re adding to that conversation by showing that online relationships are associated with longevity, too.”
The researchers hope that further research on the subject could lead to a better understanding of online social experiences and whether they are beneficial to health.
