Internet People who constantly check Facebook may be lacking in self-esteem, a study found.

Using Facebook is the online equivalent of staring at yourself in the mirror, according to a study.

一项研究报告指出，使用Facebook社交网站，和照镜子自我欣赏没什么两样，只不过地点换成了互联网。

Those who spent more time updating their profile on the social networking site were more likely to be narcissists, said researchers.

研究人员表示，那些花不少时间更新社交网站上个人资料的人，更有可能有自恋倾向。

Facebook provides an ideal setting for narcissists to monitor their appearance and how many ‘friends’ they have, the study said, as it allows them to thrive on 'shallow’ relationships while avoiding genuine warmth and empathy

Facebook能帮助建立“浅层次”的人际关系，不必投入真正的个人情感，因而为自恋者提供了一个理想的平台，帮助他们观察自己的形象，查看“好友”的数量。

They also tend to use the site for promoting themselves to friends or people they would like to meet, the study concluded.

该报告总结道，自恋者借助社交网站，可以与一些自己乐于结识的人或朋友进行交往。

Researcher Soraya Mehdizadeh from York University in Canada asked 100 students, 50 male and 50 female, aged between 18 and 25 about their Facebook habits.

加拿大约克大学的索拉雅•麦迪扎德对Facebook的使用习惯进行了一项调查，对象是18至25岁的100名学生，其中男女各半。

They all took psychology tests to measure their levels of narcissism, which the study defined as ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance’.

在这项研究中，他们采用了心理测试，评判受访者的自恋程度，研究中将自恋定义为“一种自以为是，寻求仰慕，以及夸张自负感的普遍心理状态。”

Those who scored higher on the narcissism test checked their Facebook pages more often each day than those who did not.

在此项测试中，自恋程度较高的人，相比其他人，每天更多地登录自己的主页。

There was also a difference between men and women – men generally promoted themselves by written posts on their Facebook page while women tended to carefully select the pictures in their profile.

男性与女性之间也存在区别——男性通常在Facebook主页上写日志来展示自己，而女性则往往对个人资料中的照片精挑细选。

The findings, published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour And Social Networking, also suggested that those with low self-esteem also checked their Facebook pages more regularly than normal.

刊登在《网络心理学、行为与社交网》上的这项发现还表明，自卑的人往往比其他人更频繁地登陆主页。

This may not be altogether surprising as it is widely thought, however contradictory it may appear, that narcissism is linked to a deep-rooted lack of self-esteem.

看似有些矛盾，但也不令人吃惊，因为人们已经普遍认同，自恋与深度自卑有联系。

Miss Mehdizadeh admitted that not everyone would appreciate her findings.

麦迪扎德承认，不是所有人都赞同她的发现。

She said: ‘I think people get sort of defensive about it – like, “I don’t use my Facebook for that reason” – because it’s a label that you don’t want to be slapped with.’

她说：“我认为人们对此多少会有些抵触情绪——比如说‘我用Facebook的原因并非是自恋或自卑’——这是因为你不想被贴上自恋或自卑的标签。

Facebook has more than 500million users worldwide and is the world’s biggest social networking website, but it has been involved in a number of controversies.

Facebook在全球具有5亿用户，是世界上最大的社交网站，同时也饱受争议。

A study earlier this week showed that the grades of students who use Facebook while they study, even if it is only on in the background, are 20 per cent lower on average than those of non-users.

本周初的一项研究表明，学生在学习时开着Facebook主页，即使不浏览页面，他们的平均成绩比不用Facebook的学生低20%。