Students Admit It's Really All About Them

By R. STICKNEY

Updated 9:49 AM EDT, Wed, Aug 26, 2009

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Thanks to Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and MySpace, a majority of the nation’s college students consider their generation the most self-promoting, narcissistic and overconfident.

That's what a new study conducted by a San Diego State University professor shows. The poll of 1,068 college students from across the country was conducted by Jean Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at SDSU, and Youth Pulse LLC.

The study shows nearly all college students use MySpace or Facebook regularly, and -- shockingly -- they're not doing it to save the world: 57 percent said their peers used social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention-seeking. Two-thirds consider their generation more narcissistic than others.

Then again, maybe narcissism isn't limited to college students. The study's author, Twenge, has her own web page, complete with a photo of herself front and center.

Twenge has pulled the information from the study into a book, The Narcissism Epidemic. She and her co-author discuss the crisis facing parents who throw pedicure parties for the Kindergarten set.

“Many parents and teachers believe that the way to counteract this is to teach children to feel special. Unfortunately, feeling special is narcissism, not true self-worth,” they explain in the book. “Parents are more likely to raise less narcissistic children if they set limits, dial back on excessive praise, and don’t let their children have too much power.”

Are you a narcissist? Who else can help you discover your true self but MTV/VH1 celeb Dr. Drew. Take his quiz. Oh, and believe us, we don’t want to hear how you scored.