People's engagement to social media is increasing at very fast speeds, and is affecting many life aspects of individuals across all age groups. And these traits or behavior that influence how people use social media is determined by their genes more than their environment, according to a new study.

A study conducted by the team of researchers from Kent State University has found that genetics outweighed environment when it comes to using social media, Science Daily reported. The researchers used an analytical model called Defries-Fulker (DF) Regression to examine how both environmental and genetic factors actually affect how people use the social media.

In the analysis, the findings show that one to two-thirds of variance in social media use is contributed by a person's genetic traits, then the remainder of the variance comes from environmental factors. This is first study to show how genetic traits are also impacting social media use, Medical Xpress reported, although in the past, genetic research has also been used to study a wide range of communication behaviors.

Chance York, the author of the study said that this study does not mean that there is such a thing as social media gene. He explained that the assumption in the study is that the identified genetic variation between "fraternal and identical twins can be leveraged to study how genetic variation influences patterns of observable behavior".

He also said that they are still currently doing their research because they could not directly examine how a person's genes can affect his neuroanatomy, which eventually will also influence his cognitive processing, his personality, his choices or selection when it comes to media, as well as their effects. But, he said that this study is just the beginning of learning and uncovering more ways of how genetic factors influence people's communication.

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Topics Social media, Kent State University, Genes