News: Is social networking making us fat?

There’s a place where perception of time is warped, and two hours feels like five minutes.

That place is called Facebook, and according to a new study, it’s making us all fat.

It’s not really surprising that time spent online takes people’s attention away from other activities, but unfortunately one of those activities is exercise.

Using a survey to measure social networking activity and levels of physical activity in 350 students at the University of Ulster, researchers found that the more time people spent on social network websites, the lower their levels of physical activity.

“Time is a finite resource, so time spent in social networking must come at the expense of other activities. Our study suggests that physical activity may be one of those activities,’ psychologist and study supervisor Dr. Wendy Cousins told ScienceDaily.

I know I’m guilty of losing track of time when I’m on Facebook. One minute I’m updating my status, the next I’m flipping through an album of a friend-of-a-friend before I snap out of it and realize what I’m doing.

Since I’d much rather spend an hour doing yoga than aimlessly cyber-‘socializing,’ I’ve decided that after work, my laptop is off limits until I do something that doesn’t involve a screen.

What about you? Are you guilty of losing track of time on social networking sites? Have you started exercising less because of Facebook and Twitter?

-Katharine Watts, Associate Web Editor

Related:
‘ Virtual weight loss: Can you shed pounds online?
‘ 6 reasons you’re not losing weight
‘ 7 things that are secretly making you gain weight