Social media addiction may be hereditary: study

Hooked to Facebook or Twitter? Your genes may be to blame, as scientists have found that social media addiction is influenced more by heredity, rather than environmental factors.

Researchers from Kent State University in the UK used a behaviour genetics framework and twin study data from a 2013 survey.

They examined how both environmental and genetic factors contribute to social media use by applying an analytical model called Defries-Fulker (DF) Regression. The data analysed revealed one- to two-thirds of variance in social media use is attributable to additive genetic traits, unique and shared environmental factors account for the remainder of variance.

Past behaviour genetics research shows genetic influence on a wide range of communication behaviours, researchers said.

"This study does not suggest that using DF regression with twin survey data, or the behavioural genetics perspective more generally, can directly assess gene-level influence on specific behaviours. There is no 'social media gene,'" said Chance York from Kent State University.

"The assumption here is that known genetic variation between fraternal and identical twins can be leveraged to study how genetic variation influences patterns of observable behaviour," he said.

"We are still working in a 'black box' in that we can not directly observe how genes impact our neuroanatomy, which in turn impacts cognitive processing, personality, and subsequent media selection and effects," York said.