Study: Adults as likely as teens to share personal data online

Adults are as likely as teens and pre-teens to share personal information on Facebook, a new Canadian study says–and they also crave popularity just as much.

“The online environment influences people of all ages. Both parents and teens share and show more about themselves than they might in other social settings, and the same psychological factors underpin that behavior,” Emily Christofides, who helped conduct the study at the University of Guelph in Ontario, told ScienceDaily..

The study involved 285 non-student adults between the ages of 19 and 71 and 288 youths ages 9 to 18. It found that the younger Facebook users share more personal information online–but only because they spend more time at it. Both groups were motivated to share information by a desire for popularity, the researchers found.