Neal Augenstein, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – A new study offers solace for Facebook users concerned their constant status updating and photo posting suggests self-absorption.
It’s the Twitter users that are narcissistic, according to University of Hartford researchers.
Previous studies of Facebook and its users found the social network appeals to people’s most narcissistic tendencies.
Those who frequently updated their status updates, tagged photos of themselves, spent more than an hour on Facebook and sought exorbitant numbers of online friends were more likely to exhibit narcissistic traits, in the earlier Western Illinois University study.
The new University of Hartford and University of North Carolina Wilmington study looked at whether college students primarily wrote self-promoting status updates, or engaged in others’ pages, clicking “likes” and commenting on others’ posts.
It also asked the question, “Do you share information with a wide circle of friends or value your privacy?”
This most recent study found frequent Facebook users were more likely to score high on the openness scale, and were less concerned about maintaining privacy.
“You share information about yourself on Facebook as a way to maintain relationships,” researcher Lynne Kelly told The New York Times.
The researchers found those who tweet about themselves more likely to be self-absorbed.
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