That Facebook status update or new photo post may do more than keep your family and friends up to date on your life.
It may help you live longer.
So says a new report published by a team of researchers at University of California San Diego, which is garnering national attention.
The report, published on Monday, makes the argument that those who stay busy on Facebook generally also have active social lives.
“We find that people with more friends online are less likely to die than their disconnected counterparts,” the paper states, as reported in The New York Times. “This evidence contradicts assertions that social media have had a net-negative impact on health.”
The Times articles notes that Facebook was involved with the report, though one of the UCSD researchers, William Hobbs, told the newspaper that the social media giant did not interfere with the report.
The study examined 12 million Facebook profiles and records at the California Department of Health.
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“Moderate use” of social media was correlated to the lowest mortality rate and those who received friend requests had reduced mortality, the study found.
Those with small social networks had shorter life spans than those with a larger Facebook network.
