Twitter Is More Addictive Than Sex And Alcohol

He may look cute, but this bird is a drug dealer.

Cigarettes And Alcohol Have A Higher Cost

Some people just gotta have their tweets. Like, NOW. A new study has revealed that Twitter may be harder to resist than cigarettes, alcohol or sex.

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Researchers at Chicago University's Booth Business School gave 205 people, aged 18 - 35, Blackberries and asked them to record their "desire episodes" -- any time they had a desire for something.

The participants were asked to elaborate on the desire, how strong it was, if it conflicted with other desires, and whether or not they gave into it.

From nearly 8,000 of these episodes, researchers found the desire to be on social media was the most difficult to resist.

Says lead researcher Wilhelm Hofmann, "Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist."

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Social media desires were even more difficult to resist than alcohol, a finding that Hofmann says suggests that people think it isn't as much of a time-waster.

"With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs -- long-term as well as monetary -- and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still 'steal' a lot of people's time."

Among the other findings from the study:

- A large desire was to spend money, which many people successfully resisted.

- Willpower waned as the day went on.

- The desire to stop working was one of the most frequently experienced desires.

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