Despite the claims and assertions that screen time negatively impacts health, a recent article in The New York Times showcases research that establishes a correlation between time spent on social media and longevity.

Based on a paper published in the journal PNAS, the idea that Facebook can be associated with a longer life is largely due to the theory that an active online social life is likely a mirror of a busy offline social life.

The evidence, culled from 12 million social media profiles made available to the researchers by Facebook and records from the California Department of Health, directly contradicts the long-held assertion that social media negatively impacts health. Moreover, the paper reports that people with larger social networks—or even average networks—lived longer than those with small social networks, a finding “consistent with classic studies of offline relationships and longevity.”