Who needs a wedding or a baby when you have Facebook?

Hallam FM Dating, who will you meet? New research reveals the key to using social media and actually feeling better.

It feels like every single day, a new study "proves" or "reveals" that social media is pretty much destroying our lives with varying degrees of seriousness. Some say it's linked to depression whilst others claim it can end lifelong friendships and even contribute to eating disorders.

But for anyone who has no guilt about fanatically checking Facebook every 3 minutes give or take 30 seconds, THERE IS HOPE! It seems it could actually provide you with just as much happiness as a major life event, like marriage or a baby.

Sounds farfetched?We thought so too! The new research by Carnegie Mellon University and Facebook suggests interacting on the site could make you just as happy as if you got married or had a baby.

How do they know?Researchers had access to 1,910 Facebook users' activities for three months. While the participants weren't personally identified, researchers got to see a log of how exactly they were using Facebook, like looking at photos, liking, commenting, before the same participants took a survey that asked about their mood and sense of satisfaction.

The part that makes us happy…They found that what truly makes us happy is interacting with someone we know or felt connected with, especially when it involved "personalised posts or comments".

Now finally this make sense, because if you're constantly scrolling through photos of your ex's new girlfriend, yes, you're probably going to feel like total rubbish. But if you're using social media to interact, chat, meet new people and build friendships, then yes, hopefully that will make you happy!

Oh, and if we don’t get back to you right away we’ll be writing messages to everyone we no longer speak to from school, and not - at all - thinking about our lack of ring / infant situation. Not one bit.

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