Facebook users 'are insecure, narcissistic and have low self-esteem'

[dzero]

Hey, don't bitch at me, that's the title of the article in the Daily Mail from September 9th.

The study was published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour And Social Networking

A relevant quote:

They all took psychology tests to measure their levels of narcissism, which the study defined as ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance’.
Those who scored higher on the narcissism test checked their Facebook pages more often each day than those who did not.

So does the popularity of social networking like Facebook serve to expose the latent narcissism in our society. Does this explain why some people are completely in love with Facebook (an therefore themselves?) and other people just don't seem to get it at all?

[Otara]

Someone doesnt have many friends....

The study is only 100 subjects by an undergrad research student. To me it looks like its claiming a pretty wide range of findings for a pretty small study, and using some fairly subjective measures for some of its findings, eg the 'carefully selects pictures' result. It also seems to be concentrating on only one way Facebook is used by people, the data gathering is from 2007-2008, and Id say the site has moved on since then, its as much a news site as a social site now in my view

The article also doesnt say how much higher people are in narcisissm. Ie if people who dont check often are 50, and people who do are 55, thats far less powerful a finding than if people who dont check are 10 and people who do are 90.

All this finding really suggests is further research with more robust methods needs to be done.

Otara

[Mister Owl]

I kinda wonder if the same couldn't be said about anyone that posts more than once or twice a day on any internet forum.

[Una Persson]

IIRC the same sorts of studies have been done about everything since USENET news groups, local modem-based BBS's, listservers, and on forward, including message boards and Livejournal. I do know some Facebook users sure get defensive, and even start bullying you very quickly when you ask questions about Facebook.

I see the technical paper is not free; I may ask my librarian to buy it for me next week and I'll give it a review to post here.

FTR, another interesting reference is:

Buffardi, Laura E. and Campbell, W. Keith. "Narcissism and Social Networking Web Sites" Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34 (2008): 1303-1314.

[msmith537]

Compared to who? The dork who has never spoke to his entire high school class since graduation because no one liked him?

It sounds like one of those weird studies that always seems to paint people's achievements or interests as overcompensation for some perceived shortcomings.

Facebook is popular because PEOPLE by their nature tend to be narcissistic and naturally seek out other people. Indeed a bit of narcissism is healthy. It helps you believe that you actually are important enough to go after the things you want to go after.

[Otara]

Id be interested to see if they eliminated or considered other variables, like extraversion for a start. I guess you could argue they'd be off meeting people in real life.

I dont think its inherently dumb that someone obsessed with knowing what other people are saying about them and talking about themselves a lot might have narcissism issues, but would have thought there were more reasons why people like Facebook than that, eg as a more attractive time waster at work than previous options.

Just seems like more of a sub-group or cluster than a useful unidimensional construct to me, but maybe I dont have a good sense of the majority of users of it.

Otara

[BrightNShiny]

Originally Posted by Mister Owl

I kinda wonder if the same couldn't be said about anyone that posts more than once or twice a day on any internet forum.

We should merge the SDMB and Facebook together into an orgy of self-importance.

[dzero]

I have 3 or 4 facebook accounts that I almost never look at and created for a specific purpose or for specific people to get in touch with me - don't ask me what they had against email, I don't know.

The only time I ever spent any time with it was when I somehow got hooked on the vampire game they have there. it was an incredibly stupid game and still don't know what was going through my mind at the time. Anyway, I made a serious effort to get as many "friends" as possible since it affects what you can do in the game. I think I got up to several hundred before I bailed. The point is that I never looked at the home pages of any of those people except to the extent necessary to do something game related. It wasn't just that I didn't care, but that it wouldn't even occur to me to care.

I guess at some level I really just don't like people so the fact that I don't get it isn't really surprising. I like SDMB because it's the only place on the face of the planet where I can go and find smart people who's opinions I actually have an interest in reading. The only thing that's really important to me is learning - about anything and everything. From that point of view, SDMB is the cornucopia of the gods. It's really overwhelming at times. Maybe there are circles of people on facebook where you could say something similar, and although I doubt it, I'd be willing to keep an open mind.

[msmith537]

Originally Posted by Otara

Id be interested to see if they eliminated or considered other variables, like extraversion for a start. I guess you could argue they'd be off meeting people in real life.

I don't know. A lot of the people I know who are very active on Facebook are also very extroverted IRL. Also, a lot of my friends use the "event" and messaging functionality to plan real life activities.

[Novelty Bobble]

Originally Posted by dzero

I guess at some level I really just don't like people so the fact that I don't get it isn't really surprising. I like SDMB because it's the only place on the face of the planet where I can go and find smart people who's opinions I actually have an interest in reading. The only thing that's really important to me is learning - about anything and everything. From that point of view, SDMB is the cornucopia of the gods. It's really overwhelming at times. Maybe there are circles of people on facebook where you could say something similar, and although I doubt it, I'd be willing to keep an open mind.

Are you me dzero? I feel much the same way.

I have people I work with, my family and perhaps one or two people that I'd call "friends" by my own definition. But the thought that people would know what I was doing or the sharing of personal information with anyone other than my wife or very close friends is horrifying to me.

So I don't understand it, thankfully neither does my wife and we are both very private people with low levels of narcissism so feel free to add those two anecdotal data points to the mix.

[Sitnam]

Meh, Facebook is really just a workplace time killer and an easy way to coordinate with real friends and get in touch with extended family. Anyone using it for a drama stage gets booted from my wall.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

[quote=dzero;13182923]Hey, don't bitch at me, that's the title of the article in the Daily Mail from September 9th.

Originally Posted by msmith537

Compared to who?

Surely a Daily Mail journalist calling Facebook users insecure and narcissistic is a classic kettle / black situation.

[Elvis Chimney]

It's an article in the Daily Mail, the most reactionary newspaper in the UK. The Mail and its readers are confused and scared by (amongst many other things) anything new, and Facebook, the internet, and computers in general fall squarely into that category.

A pro-Facebook article from the Daily Mail would be worthy of note - but this is par-for-the-course nonsense. I wouldn't take any notice of it.

[BigT]

Does anyone have access to at least an abstract of the study? Because there are several ways to identify someone as narcissistic, some more useful than others. I could easily see it involving comparing the way people interact in real life versus how they interact on Facebook. The only way the study would be useful is if it actually tested the individuals. And even then it could easily be brought down by selection bias.

[dzero]

Originally Posted by BigT

Does anyone have access to at least an abstract of the study? Because there are several ways to identify someone as narcissistic, some more useful than others. I could easily see it involving comparing the way people interact in real life versus how they interact on Facebook. The only way the study would be useful is if it actually tested the individuals. And even then it could easily be brought down by selection bias.

I think Otara tried to address some of those issues, but as Una mentioned, the paper does not seem to be freely available. She may be able to get a copy though.

[Otara]

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs...rnalCode=cyber

Doesnt mention what tests were used.

Otara