People enjoy talking about themselves and expressing their thoughts and feelings on social media. Research shows that these activities activate the same areas of the brain as sex or eating chocolate.
Harvard researchers believe that bragging is comparable to the pleasure derived from food or sex. People enjoy sharing their successes with others. Research participants preferred to boast about themselves even when offered monetary compensation. However, the pleasure a bragger experiences is not at all dependent on whether they do so in person or via social media platforms like VKontakte or Facebook. Perhaps this is why people share even personal and intimate facts about themselves on social media.
Earlier studies showed that approximately 30-40% of human speech conveys information related to personal experience. The internet has expanded the number of ways to express oneself. People open up to others every day. During conversations, people prefer to spend most of their time talking about themselves. According to observations of volunteers' brain responses, talking about oneself increases activity in the same areas of the brain that also activate during sex, winning money, or eating delicious food.
Experts believe these findings may explain why some people become truly addicted to social media.