In this day and age, the term “friend” has become a fluid concept. Social networking sites have increased the term to include the people following you or have added you in their Twitter or Facebook accounts, though not necessarily people you know personally or have had history with. But that doesn’t mean you can’t build meaningful relationships with the people you meet online. Strangely, sometimes people feel closer to the people they meet online than in real life!

This article from Time.com says that having a healthy social life extends your life in the same way quitting smoking does. The study came from collecting information from 148 past researches on the connection of health and social relationships. It was found that people with poor social connections lived shorter 50% of the time versus people with lots of friends. In fact, this is as beneficial as quitting smoking! If you’re more of a homebody and you’d like a reason to get out of the house, this is it!

Having lots of friends is never a bad thing, so here are some tips to send out friendly vibes that will surely widen your social circle or even gain you new circles!