Greater social network use among this category of users with strong ties to their friends is also associated with individuals having higher body-mass indexes and higher levels of credit-card debt, according to the study.
"To our knowledge, this is the first research to show that using online social networks can affect self-control," said researcher Andrew T Stephen from the University of Pittsburgh.
"We have demonstrated that using today's most popular social network, Facebook, may have a detrimental affect on people's self-control," Stephen said in a statement.
