Heavy Facebook Users May Be Narcissists
new study
N = 100 students at York University
measured facebook usage, self esteem, narcissism
looked at their pages for self promotion
students with lower self-esteem scores and higher narcissism scores
spent spent more time on Facebook
did more self-promotion
self-promotion defined:
(ShockMD.com)
any descriptive or visual information that appeared to attempt to persuade others about one's own positive qualities, ex: posting celebrity look-alikes, use of picture enhancement
heavy user defined:
constantly updates status
obsessively uploads new photos
excessively posts or comments on others' walls
the study:
Self-Presentation 2.0: Narcissism and Self-Esteem on Facebook
Soraya Mehdizadeh. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. August 2010, 13(4): 357-364. doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0257.
Published in Volume: 13 Issue 4: August 16, 2010
Soraya Mehdizadeh, B.Sc.
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Canada.
Abstract
Online social networking sites have revealed an entirely new method of self-presentation. This cyber social tool provides a new site of analysis to examine personality and identity. The current study examines how narcissism and self-esteem are manifested on the social networking Web site Facebook.com. Self-esteem and narcissistic personality self-reports were collected from 100 Facebook users at York University. Participant Web pages were also coded based on self-promotional content features. Correlation analyses revealed that individuals higher in narcissism and lower in self-esteem were related to greater online activity as well as some self-promotional content. Gender differences were found to influence the type of self-promotional content presented by individual Facebook users. Implications and future research directions of narcissism and self-esteem on social networking Web sites are discussed.
SOURCES
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/facebook-study-finds-narc_n_693719.html
full text available here:
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2009.0257?journalCode=cyber