Read the article.
Social media: the only tool in the world that can magnify mankind's already narcissistic nature. Is sharing our thoughts and experiences with the Facebook or Twitter world as self-rewarding as the study suggests? I think the answer is most likely yes. Maybe the self-rewarding feeling does not always stem from the posting itself. Maybe it stems from the amount of comments and likes that your post accumulates. If people like what you have to say, it only seems natural that you should feel good about your post.
The self-rewarding feeling could also come from the fact that you got something off your chest. Maybe you were super angry about something but was unable to tell people about it directly. Social media is a good way to get those feelings out there (unless getting those feelings out offends certain people). I know for a fact that I like to vent by going on Twitter rants about my terrible experiences. Doing that lets me feel better, and I don’t have to worry about bottled up emotions that could later lead to depression and/or anxiety.
In terms of the actual science behind the observation that divulging information is considered to be self-rewarding, parts of the experiment conducted seems a bit iffy. I mean, finding which brain regions are affected when we post online seems like a genuine piece of information. Questions arise when the researchers stated “that the test subjects would turn down money (just a few cents) to talk about someone else, in order to enjoy the more pleasurable sensation of talking about themselves.” There obviously has to be some sort of threshold where monetary rewards will outweigh the pleasurable sensations. A few cents is not a good enough incentive.
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