Dr. Tracy Alloway from the University of North Florida conducted a study which aimed to discover the relationship among mature users of Facebook whose ages range from 18 to 50. The study found out that Facebook has features that are linked to a person's selfishness while some of a person's activities may show his capacity to empathize.
Published in the "Social Networking" journal, the study was participated by more than 400 Facebook users. Each user was given a range of questions that seek to assess their unique behaviors when it comes to using Facebook. Some of these questions deal with the number of hours a day that they spend on Facebook and even the number of times they would update their Facebook status. Participants were also asked to give a rating to their profile picture and based their answers on criteria such as attractiveness, glamour quality, cool feature and fashionable appearance.
Each question had been carefully crafted in order to find the most accurate results. If answered honestly and truthfully, the questions would reveal a user's Narcissistic tendencies and understand the level of empathy.
The study was able to accurately measure narcissism levels through the user's way of rating their profile picture. This is most obvious among males who only had their profile picture ratings as the basis of narcissism levels. For the females, their narcissism appears on the way they rated their profile picture and the way they would update their status.
Females would regularly update their photo at least once in every two months as opposed to once in every three months photo update of the males.
The study also showed some remarkable differences between the two sexes. It says that men are more narcissistic while women believe that their profile pictures are attractive and has magazine cover quality. Perhaps this could also explain why some people tend to place a celebrity's photo as their profile picture for them to have a glamorous Facebook profile photo.
Despite the narcissistic side of using Facebook, there are other activities that show an individual's personality. These are the user's number of friends, how often they upload a picture, and chatting.
"The number of friends they had, even how often they posted photos of themselves weren't related to narcissistic tendencies," says Dr. Alloway.
The study concluded that some of these users' activities encourage certain levels of empathy. Facebook's profile photo feature is so far the only one that is linked to narcissism. On the whole, the study suggested that when using social media, the user's purpose is to stay connected with friends and family.
