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Social media allows people to keep in touch with friends, family and the people around the world with like-minded interests, and share their own thoughts, personal updates, and opinions online. However, using social media too much and posting many selfies (自拍) have caused a rise in narcissism, according to a new study. Narcissism is when someone becomes very selfish and believes they are very talented and beautiful. They need attention from other people and think they are better than everyone else.

Researchers at universities in Swansea and Milan found that heavy users of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter showed a 25 percent rise in narcissism in just four months. The researchers studied how 74 people aged 18 to 34 used social media and looked at how their personality changed. They said that posting selfies seemed to increase levels of narcissism in a way that text messaging does not. Those who used social media too much, through posting pictures, showed an average 25 percent increase in such narcissistic personality over the four months of the study. Only one of them in the study didn’t use social media, and others’ average use was around three hours a day, not including usage for work. Some said that they used social media for as much as eight hours a day for non-working reasons.

More than two-thirds of the participants at the beginning used social media for posting pictures. Professor Phil Reed, from the Department of Psychology at Swansea University, said, “There have been suggestions of links between narcissism and the use of selfies on social media, such as Facebook, but until this study, it was not known if using such social media is related with the growth in narcissism.”

The results of this study suggest that posting selfies can increase narcissism. Professor Read said that about 20 percent of people may be at risk of developing narcissism. This is because they want attention and likes from other people after they post a selfie. They also want to show others how their life is better or how they are more beautiful or attractive. They might feel good at the moment, but in the long term, it only serves to drive good people away from them, have negative effects on their success, and leave them weak and at risk.