Study: Facebook Can Help You Live Longer

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Is Facebook the key to a long life? A new study  says online social activity, like busy offline social activity, can help you live longer.

The study was based on 12 million social media profiles that Facebook made available to the researchers, along with records from California's Department of Health.

The researcher found that 'people with more friends online are less likely to die than their disconnected counterparts.'

They found that the risk of dying in a given year was about 12 percent less for Facebook users compared to non-users.

Measures used in the research included number of friends, photos, status updates and message and friend requests set.