Are you also guilty of spending too much time on WhatsApp? Well, now you don’t have to! Researchers have found that spending time on digital platforms such as WhatsApp, is good for our well-being. Yes, you read that right!

According to a study titled ‘Psychosocial Outcomes Associated with Engagement with Online Chat Systems’, published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, the text-based messaging app, which offers users group chat functions, has a positive impact on psychological health. It found that the more time people spent on WhatsApp per day, the less lonely they were and had higher their self-esteem as a result of feeling closer to friends and family.

“There’s lots of debate about whether spending time on social media is bad for our well-being but we’ve found it might not be as bad as we think. The more time people spent on WhatsApp, the more this related to them feeling close to their friends and family and they perceived these relationships to be good quality,” said Linda Kaye, Professor at Edge Hill University.

The research of 200 users, 158 women and 41 men with an average age of 24, found that the average reported daily use of WhatsApp was around 55 minutes with people preferring the app because of its popularity and the chat function feature that enabled users to talk with more than one person at a time.