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Never mind global warning! Given the cavalcade of studies — specious or otherwise — revealing how Facebook is destroying humanity, we probably won't be around for the worst of it.
Why, just this week we learned that Facebook use can lower grades by 20 percent. That's the latest on a list of studies that includes how Facebook can cause health problems, destroy future job opportunities, whip up jealousy and blah blah blah. And now, here's another one that tells us Facebook users are either totally conceited or serious self-haters.
It's been this Facebook user's personal experience that one can be both of the above. And sure enough, a much-hyped undergraduate psychology thesis out of York University in Canada finds that both narcissists and low self-esteem sufferers (within the test group) tend to spend more time on Facebook, loading up their profiles with a lot of self-centered content.
"We all know people like this. They’re updating their status every five minutes and the photos they post are very carefully construed," the thesis author Soraya Mehdizade said on York University's news page. "The question is, are these really accurate representations of the individual or are they merely a projection of who the individual wants to be?" The study also found:
The more extreme the narcissism, the more time spent checking Facebook.
The more extreme the self-loathing, the more time spent checking Facebook.
Males were more concerned with the "About me" sections of their profiles.
Women are more concerned with how good they look in their pictures.
Interesting stuff, if not somewhat obvious, and a topic that deserves follow up with a broader methodology, as Mehdizade suggests in the summation of her thesis: "Aside from including a more objective measure of Facebook page coding and incorporating multiple page coders, future research should seek to expand these results across a larger sample that is more diverse in age and selected across a variety of settings."
Mehdizade's study followed the online habits and personalities of 100 York University students between the ages of 18 and 25. Considering Facebook's 500,000 international members, that's a fine start for further study, but hardly the headline-grabbing condemnation we want it to be.
All manner of media love to grab the most specious of Facebook studies. The social network is such a strong presence in so many lives; these stories are guaranteed to get a big audience. And since hating Facebook is a popular topic on Facebook, the more negative the findings the better. Who doesn't want their beliefs confirmed by science — even when the scientist who authored the ballyhooed study confirms that far more work needs to be done? All we need now is one tiny study that confirms Facebook causes both narcissism and low self-esteem, and we're all set!
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Those that know, don't tell. And those that tell, don't know.
So say what you mean, and mean what you say.
And if its ain't broke, don't fix it.
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