Social Media Makes People Vain, Less Empathic: Study

Social media makes people vain, less empathic: Study

A new study has found that the increased trend of social media, which helps people connect, is actually making them more selfish

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Dec, 2017 ) :A new study has found that the increased trend of social media, which helps people connect, is actually making them more selfish and less empathic.Assistant professor of psychology Dr.

Tracy Alloway, from the University of North Florida, investigated the relationship among adult Social media users, between ages 18 and 50, and found that some features are linked to selfishness and some activities may encourage empathy, said the study published in Social Networking.

Alloway and her research team conducted a study on more than 400 individuals and asked them a range of questions about their social media behaviors, including the hours they spent on Social media per day, and the number of times they updated their status.

They also asked participants to rate their profile picture: were they physically attractive, cool, glamorous and fashionable.

Participants in the study, the bulk single, used Social media sites an average of two hours per day and had approximately 500 friends for both males and females.

The majority 89.5 percent reported they were included in their profile photos. The study revealed only one Social media behavior accurately predicted narcissism levels: user profile picture ratings.

For males, only their profile picture ratings were a predictor of narcissism. For the females, both their profile picture ratings and their status update frequency predicted their narcissism.The study's conclusion also found that some Social media activities, such as chatting, encourage some aspects of empathy.

Although the photo feature was linked to narcissism, the overall pattern of findings suggested that social media is primarily a tool for staying connected than for self-promotion