“College students have clearly noticed the more self-centered traits of their peers — it’s fascinating how honest they are about diagnosing their generation’s downsides,” Twenge said. “And students are right about the influence of social networking sites — research has shown that narcissistic people thrive on sites like Facebook, where self-centered people have more friends and post more attractive pictures of themselves.”

Ninety-two percent of students who took the poll said they use MySpace or Facebook regularly, and 84 percent said they go online several times each day.

Detractors criticize Y’s (individuals born between 1980 and 2000) as products of a misguided parenting movement designed to buffer children from the negative effects of competition and build self-esteem — an approach, they argue, that has filled them with false self-confidence. Some claim that self-esteem without achievement to back it up has produced an unmotivated and self-aggrandizing generation.

What do you think? Are Gen Ys really narcissistic?