Make sure you’re seated, because this might come as a shock: narcissism is the primary driver of people on twitter.
In a study published in Computers in Human Behaviour, researchers measuring the role of narcissism in social media found that young narcissists tweeted a lot, whereas older narcissists spent more time updating their Facebook feed. Researchers had 515 college undergrads and 669 adults, all of whom active on social media, participate in an online survey. All participants filled out the forty-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory (example), and said how much they updated their social media every day.
In both groups, narcissism was a strong predictor of increased social media usage—however, the type of social media predicted depended on the age of the participant. In undergraduates, narcissism was a better predictor of twitter usage, whereas older participants who scored high in narcissism were more likely to update Facebook more regularly.
So, what’s the cure? We recommend face-to-face socializing.
