Facebook Good for Your Health

Facebook Good for Your Health Photo Via: http://www.techspot.com According to a recent study conducted by a doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego, the amount of time that we spend on social media is actually associated with a longer life. The study was published in the journal PNAS this Monday, and implied that the health effects of spending time online can actually mirror the benefits of living a busy life outside of social media. According to the paper, “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.” Of course, it’s easy to be a little skeptical of the study. However, three university and state review boards approved the study. That being said, two authors of the paper had pasts at Facebook, so I’d take the study with a grain of salt. Authors William Hobbs and Moira Burke worked at Facebook previously. But Mr. Hobbs actually said that Facebook didn’t interfere with his study in saying, “We had some things in writing that they couldn’t interfere with the publication of the research no matter what the result was.” That being said, Mr. Hobbs also noted that members of Facebook felt “pretty confident that we were going to find this result.” And a news release that was released by the University of California stated, “The research confirms what scientists have known for a long time about the offline world: People who have stronger social networks live longer.” The study followed a total of 12 million social media profiles and records from the California Department of Health. So what exactly did the study find? For one thing, it found that “moderate use” of the social media site was associated with the lowest mortality rate and friend requests were also associated with reduced mortality. It also found that sending friend requests was not associated with reduced mortality and those with large/average social networks actually lived longer than those with smaller accounts. And the study subjects were all born between 1945 and 1989, so it is taking into consideration multiple generations. According to the paper, the finding was “consistent with classic studies of offline relationships and longevity.” That all being said, the paper also acknowledges that this doesn’t necessarily mean that using Facebook can directly affect your health. Basically, if you’re diagnosed with cancer, using Facebook isn’t going to cure you. Professor of public health and political science, James Fowler, claimed to be surprised at the association between requesting friendships online and longer life spans. According to him, “I had hoped we would find that reaching out to others was associated with better health.” Mr. Fowler claims that this surprise could in part be because researchers that previously correlated friendships with health could have mistaken the relationship between “sociability and health.” According to him, “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.” Basically, the correlation is only there if the good health is there to begin with. Nathan Jurgenson, sociologist and researcher for Snapchat, pointed out that the study viewed the internet vs. real life as binary, even though there was evidence throughout the paper suggesting the opposite. According to Jurgenson, “All of the conceptual and linguistic back flips being done here in trying to explain that the virtual world interacts with the real world could be circumvented by instead taking for granted that digital connection is new and different but that it’s also part of this one social reality. And that being said, this positive outcome is a first for Facebook. Three years ago, a paper that was published in PLOS One journal actually claimed that in a two week span, the more the subjects of the study used Facebook, the worse they rated their own happiness. According to that paper, “On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it.” But whether you believe the study is accurate or not, it’s another important turn in science that will result in many more studies to follow. According to Mr. Hobbs, “At this point, we’re not making any recommendations on how people should use social media. It’s good to have a long track record of finding these relationships again and again before we start giving recommendations.” That’s probably best.