Tracy Alloway looks at all the stuff people put on social media and sees a gold mine. It’s a rich place for research in her field, and she’s happy to dig in.
Alloway, a psychologist, author and assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Florida, has made several studies of social media, particularly Facebook. And while some may tut-tut at the hours people spend in digital communion with friends and “friends,” she has a general benign view of it all.
Her latest study looks at narcissism and empathy and how they relate to Facebook use. And while there is some narcissism on display there, she concludes that Facebook isn’t really going to make anyone more narcissistic than they would have been otherwise.
However, Facebook can help make people more empathetic, she found, as they keep in touch with the travails and triumphs of a wide-flung group of often diverse people.
Because that’s what it’s really about, her study concludes: Facebook is primarily a tool for staying connected rather than for self-promotion.
“You want to connect to people,” she said.
Consider, Alloway said, that outpouring of praise on social media for U.S. soccer goalie Tim Howard after his on-field heroics at the World Cup. Tweets, Facebook posts, shared images of Howard on Mount Rushmore or holding up the Titanic — that’s all a way of joining that conversation, finding out the answer, she said, to this question: “Are there other people out there who feel the way I do about Howard’s amazing saves?”
Her latest paper, co-authored by students Rachel Runac, Mueez Qureshi and George Kemp, is titled “Is Facebook Linked to Selfishness? Investigating the Relationships among Social Media Use, Empathy and Narcissism.”
It studied 410 volunteers between 18 and 50, though most — 82 percent — were under 25. On average, they used Facebook two hours a day and had almost 500 friends.
She cautioned that she studies the general population, not addictive personalities who might run into trouble with over-sharing or the very real problem of cyber-bullying. “It’s how you choose to use [Facebook],” she said. “If someone is an angry or aggressive person, if social media wasn’t there they’d find another way to express that.”
There were differences between the sexes among those she studied and questioned: Women spent more time on Facebook; rated their profile picture as more attractive, cool, glamorous or fashionable; changed their profile picture more frequently; and viewed, posted and tagged photos more frequently.
Participants were given a standard questionnaire to determine how narcissistic they were. And while men tend to be more narcissistic, the study said that only one Facebook behavior accurately predicted narcissism levels for both sexes: how highly they rated their profile picture. For women, how often they updated their status was also an indicator.
Alloway had earlier studied Facebook, high school students, and school grades. She found that those who’d used Facebook longer had high verbal IQ scores; keeping track of all the status updates of friends seemed to keep them more mentally sharp.
That applied, too, to another of her studies, one that focused on adults. It suggested to her that staying active on social media can help the mental acuity of older people and keep them more engaged.
Of course, venturing into social media does run the risk of political posturing, banal updates and endless cute-cat photos. That’s easily solved by most users, though.
“Just like in real life, we’re deciding what kind of conversations we want to have,” Alloway said. “You pick out what’s important to you and discard what’s not.”
Matt Soergel: (904) 359-4082