New studies conducted by leading researchers from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) show that time spent on online platforms such as Facebook can prolong our lives.
How? Relatively simple. The medical effects of socializing activities largely reflect the benefits that real social life has on health.
"We find that people with more friends online are less likely to die than their disconnected counterparts. This evidence contradicts assertions that social media have had a net-negative impact on health."
The methods used in this study are already approved by three universities and federal evaluation boards. However, skeptics say that the online platform Facebook was involved in the realization of this study. Why? Because William Hobbs, who is doing postdoctoral studies at Northeastern University, worked in the Facebook company, in the research department, in 2013 and another author of the study, Moira Burke, worked and danced in the Facebook company's research department.
The study was based on 12 million profiles on social networks made available to the authors by the Facebook company, but also on medical information provided by the California Department of Health. The study found that moderate use of the Facebook platform was associated with a lower mortality rate, while sending a large number of friend requests was not associated with a lower mortality rate.
"The reason why people with more friends are healthier is because healthier people have more friends, it may be harder than we thought it was to use social networks to make people healthier."
