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Life

06th Apr 2018

Apparently, having loads of Facebook friends can make you physically sick

Time to delete a few mates!

Olivia Hayes

Many of us have had Facebook for yonks now.

We cringe at old statuses, cry at teenage photos and admittedly, still stalk the lads we met in Coppers two weeks ago.

Over the years, it’s safe to say many of us have added a fair amount of friends on the site, so much so, that we don’t even remember who half of them are.

Doing a little Facebook spruce up every now and again is great, especially if you want to say goodbye to your sister’s fella’s cousin’s friend that you met at a party in 2013.

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Turns out, deleting friends might actually be the best thing to do as research found that having loads of friends on Facebook can make you sick.

Like, actually physically sick.

Researchers at Regis University found that people with more friends on Facebook suffer from poorer health, especially with respiratory problems.

They studied a group of 89 college students. At the beginning, they all completed a survey about their Facebook habits and how they conduct their lives on the social site.

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Then, the students were monitored for ten weeks; both their bodies, and their online presence.

The risk of getting sick was higher for people who get ‘Facebook-anxiety’, which is, for example, worrying about a person not accepting your friend request.

The researchers said: “Users who demonstrated anxiety regarding their Facebook use were more likely to demonstrate a pattern of increased number of log-ins to Facebook.

“These anxiety-linked behavior patterns were associated with poorer health.”

Time to delete a few friends, we think!