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Interesting article on Facebook and narcissism

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Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi everybody,

Here's an interesting article on Facebook and narcissism from The Guardian:

"Facebook's 'dark side': study finds link to socially aggressive narcissism"

 by Damien Pearse

guardian.co.uk, Sat 17 Mar 2012 13.41 GMT

http://m.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/17/facebook-dark-side-study-aggressive-narcissism?cat=technology&type=article

A few quotes from the article:

"Researchers have established a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a "socially disruptive" narcissist, confirming the conclusions of many social media sceptics."

"Carol Craig, a social scientist and chief executive of the Centre for Confidence and Well-being, said young people in Britain were becoming increasingly narcissistic and Facebook provided a platform for the disorder.

The way that children are being educated is focussing more and more on the importance of self esteem – on how you are seen in the eyes of others. This method of teaching has been imported from the US and is 'all about me'."

"Dr Viv Vignoles, senior lecturer in social psychology at Sussex University, said there was "clear evidence" from studies in America that college students were becoming increasingly narcissistic."

All comments are welcome!

Richard

BonesMS:
Interesting!!!!!  Thanks, Dr. G!

I confess that I'm on Facebook every day as I have my business page set up there and trying to find clients through that.  I use my non-business page to network with other Star Trek fans, CERT, and other civic stuff going on in my community, (and occasionally posting a political rant or two when I get annoyed enough).  When one of my FB friends offered to teach Tai Chi nearby, for free last summer, I took the risk and enjoyed the experience!  (Better than staying isolated and depressed.)

I've also encountered some WEIRD people that I UN-Friended pronto after giving them one warning concerning boundaries.  One insisted on posting porn on my wall and I gave him the boot!  (I don't like nonsense from anyone young enough to be my grandchild!)  If they want to talk about Star Trek, GREAT!  If they want to share funny pictures of kittens and puppies doing silly things....even better!  If we want to share pictures of the latest high school reunion or CERT activities, no problem!  Those who seem to be exhibiting N-behaviors, (e.g. Look at ME-ME-ME-ME!!!!), non-stop, I can hide their comments when they start plucking my last nerve.  I've even been able to reconnect with friends that I hadn't seen for 30 to 40 years and it's great to be able to chat with them through FB.

I guess the most important thing is finding that healthy balance.

P.S.  I also have to confess that I'm hooked on playing the Journey of Moses game.......

JustKathy:
I SO agree with these findings. I have a friend who I've ceased contact with because of her extreme narcissism. She's now on Facebook and has taken that narcissism to a new level. The friend limit on FB is 5,000, which is perfectly fair since no one has 5,000 friends unless they are a public figure, in which case you are encouraged to set up a fan page. This woman (my former friend) has two accounts, one with her name and the second with the number 2 after it, to hold overflow friends. She keeps her friend limit maxed out on both accounts, friending complete strangers to make herself look important (9,000 friends between the two accounts). Her delusion of grandeur is that she's a famous artist, so she must have these friends to heap adoration on her and perpetuate the myth that she's "internationally known."

I have watched her absolutely obsess over the friend count. Anyone with that number of friends will typically lose 5-10 a day - probably people who get sick of the endless posts about the person's greatness. I have seen her up at all hours of the night, combing FB for any interested party so she can get that number back up to 5,000 by morning. She has friended people in Russia, Turkey, and numerous countries where the "friends" do not even speak English. In fact, with that number of friends, odds are that many of them are bots.

I'm actually surprised that my NM hasn't discovered FB yet. I see in this the unpopular girl in high school who, 30 years later, is able to prove that she's "popular" because she now has 5,000 "friends." It's an N's dream

Ales2:
I have not read this article, so can't comment on it specifically.

But, I can relate!!!!  I can attest to the broader statement about Nism on FB, because I was briefly "friended" by a quasi-business partner, a published author with 5k friends and he is an extreme N - entitled, grandiose, self absorbed, constant attention and admiration seeker and yet remains emotionally unavailable to his wife and daughter (a 21 yr. old heroin addict - thats another story entirely). He encouraged groupies, posted pictures of his athletic/career accomplishments and my personal favorite - a semi-nude picture (i.e a towel over his you-know-what) from his college locker room days.  This guy incited a rivalry between two female groupies and the end result was that he had to shut down his FB.  HA!  His posts and the squabbles on there were more fun and interesting than SNL!!!

Anyway, I find FB amusing, but have been on the lookout for Nist behavior... I have not unfriended anyone yet, but expect I will in the future.

 

sKePTiKal:
All in all, human behavior doesn't change that much that quickly... so we're just using a new medium to interact in all the same old ways. I'm sure it's the ideal tool for Ns to gather N-supply - "look at me! I'm so cool!"... and I'm sure a lot of people unsubscribe to their posts pretty quickly in response, too and then unfriend them.

Me, I'm gonna spend the hours required to delete my old content on FB before I get switched over to timeline and have trouble figuring it out. One techie glitch... and OOPS... the whole world can see what I intended to be private. Heading that off at the pass.

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