Social Media & Narcissism: The Recap

“You’re expected to have a Facebook now,” Michigan State University student Robin Coan said.

“I stare at it a lot. I don’t update it ever,” said MSU student Jacob Meier about his Facebook page.

A recent study suggests Facebook usage does not make undergraduate students more narcissistic.

Active Twitter users are more likely to have narcissistic qualities than active Facebook users, but Twitter usage will not necessarily make undergraduates more narcissistic either, the study found.

“It is (narcissists’) motivation for social media usage that differs from non-narcissists,” said Professor Shaun Davenport, one of the researchers, via email.

Professor John Heinrichs, a technology and social media expert at Wayne State University, said he thinks social media “allows students to share ideas and continue discussions beyond the classroom.”

In the study’s sample of over 500 college students, almost 98 percent said they had a Facebook account, and over 42 percent said they had a Twitter account, according to survey data.

In its sample of 669 other adults, survey data reported over 93 percent had a Facebook, and over half had a Twitter.

To hear what MSU students thought about these findings, click here or refer to this previous blog post.