Can Facebook Increase Longevity?

Research studies have shown that online social networks such as Facebook can be beneficial for a person’s health. Offline relationships have long been recognized as being important for psychological well-being and health. As early as the late 1970s, having close friends has been linked to longevity.  A nine-year study showed that people with no community or social ties were as much as 2.8 times more likely to die prematurely than those who had extensive social connections on the networking site. Subsequent studies bore similar results.

An analysis of more than 148 studies showed that social ties, when strong, improve a person’s survival chances by as high as 50 percent. Research has also shown that loneliness is as significant a mortality risk factor as are alcohol consumption and smoking. Feelings of loneliness and isolation have increased, as more people have moved away from their families and friends. This has led to far fewer social ties, as a person tries to become acclimated to new and strange surroundings and having to live alone, without the give-and-take of having other people around.

A new study, led by researchers James Fowler and William Hobbs of the University of California-San Diego, looking at 12 million users of Facebook, states that online friendships in networks like Facebook do help people live longer, but only if they are used moderately and for the maintenance and improvement of real-life social connections and interactions. The people studied were born between the years 1945 and 1989, and their online activity was monitored for more than six months.

Facebook users with the highest amounts of offline social activity had the highest longevity. Considered online were the number of friends, photos of actual offline face-to-face social activity, status updates, messages, and wall posts sent in order to see if those who were more active lived longer. Online interaction appeared to be healthy when the activity was moderate and when it complemented a person's interactions offline. Spending a lot of time online with little connection to people otherwise, is negative and had the lowest levels of mortality.

People worldwide report increasing feelings of loneliness. In 2014, in Great Britain, one in every 10 people reported that they did not have a single close friend. A 2010 study by the American Association of Retired Persons showed that 43 percent of Americans aged 45 to 49 reported feeling lonely regularly. Other studies have shown that a higher number of Facebook friends means stronger and comforting social support, which lowers physical illness and decreases stress.

On the other hand, the current study also revealed that those who accepted the most friend requests lived the longest. This could indicate that actively seeking out friendships is not necessarily beneficial to health. Therefore, public health initiatives urging people to get out and make more friendships may be misguided.

The results of this study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers matched California Facebook users with relevant records from the Department of Public Health, and they would like to see others do similar studies.