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Data Shows the Internet Is Making Our Personalities Worse (But There’s Reason for Optimism)
If you want to be successful in life, there are plenty of personality traits and behaviors that can help. But being conscientious, science tells us, is among the most important.
“Conscientious people have better health, are less likely to be depressed, are wealthier and live longer, compared to people who are less conscientious,” Scientific American recently reported. “When compared to extraversion, conscientiousness is more strongly related to academic success, work performance and lower rates of substance use.”
All of which means it would be alarming for both individual strivers and society in general if there were to be a general decline in conscientiousness among the population. But that’s just what the data is showing. Many experts believe the internet is to blame.
Are our personalities getting worse?
The conversation about the general decline in conscientiousness was kicked off in August by Financial Times journalist John Burn-Murdoch. He dug into data from USC’s Understanding America Study and found a “sustained erosion of conscientiousness, with the fall especially pronounced among young adults.”
