A new study has looked into the personalities and habits of the typical Facebook user and classified most of the active ones as narcissistic, though their reaction is probably, “Nuh uh. I’m better than that.”
The study, from Canadian school York University, found a direct correlation between the amount of time someone spends on Facebook and how narcissistic he or she is.
It took 100 students, 50 male and 50 female, and asked them about how they interact with Facebook. Then all 100 also took psychological profiling tests. As part of that test, they were apparently given what is basically a narcissism score.
Users who checked their Facebook accounts multiple times each day were more likely to score higher on the narcissism test, said researchers.
The study defined narcissism as “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance.” Sounds like most Facebook users to me.
What is still unclear is whether inherently narcissistic people use Facebook, or if Facebook plants the narcissism seed into their personalities. Given how easy it is to attain “friends” and be praised on the social networking site, I would guess the latter is the case.
Interestingly, the study also found that a lot of active Facebook users have low self-esteem. So clearly, they’re not getting the attention they want in the real world so they turn to Facebook for whatever acceptance they can find there. But even though they may feel accepted, it’s not enough. Real-world human interaction is apparently still something we all crave. Imagine that.
