Anyone who’s in a diet should stay away from social networking sites.

An interesting and somewhat shocking study published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that the chance of becoming obese increased by 57% if a person had a friend who became obese in a given period!

Similar with other vices like smoking and drinking, we are easily influenced by the people around us. Social networking is just a new medium but the psychology behind peer influence is still same.

To make matters worse, obesity spreads up to 3 degrees of separation. According to Nicholas Christakis, a physician and Harvard University professor who headed the study:

We know that people are influenced by their friends. But what was innovative about our study is the fact that people tend to be influenced by friends of friends of friends.

This is on top of the sedentary lifestyle of many active members of social networking sites.

As the cliché goes, tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.

Via The Daily Reveille

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