Finally, some good news for Facebook fans - a new study has revealed that using Facebook might actually be good for your mental well-being.
Sounds unlikely, but research conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and Facebook themselves indicates that your social media interactions may have as much of an impact on your happiness as a major life event like getting married or having a baby. And it’s cheaper.
It’s not just the odd cheeky ‘like’ we’re talking about though. The interaction has to be from people you know well IRL or care about, and has to be in the form of a personalised post or comment in order to make an impact on your well-being.
60 is the magic number - apparently 60 comments in a month (who gets that many?!) from your close friends will amount to getting married. Emphasis on the ‘apparently’.
The study counters previous research suggesting that the time someone spends on social media could be linked to loneliness and even depression. This could be because the new research distinguishes between the types of things we do on Facebook, rather than lumping all of our social media activity under the same umbrella.
Moira Burke, who has a PhD in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University, explained: ‘people who are feeling down may indeed spend more time on social media, but they choose to do so because they’ve learned it makes them feel better.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.