Narcissism, named after the Greek god Narcissus, is defined as, “inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.” Narcissus, according to legend, saw his image in a reflecting pool and was so captivated by himself that he was unable to leave the pool and eventually died.
While the story of Narcissus may be fiction, we all know people who suffer from the affliction of self-love and vanity. According to an article in The Guardian newspaper, a study recently published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences suggests that there may be a link “between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a ‘socially disruptive’ narcissist.”
People who score highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire had more friends on Facebook, tagged themselves more often and updated their newsfeeds more regularly.
Two constructs measured by the researchers–exhibitionism and entitlement–appear to be connected to the number of Facebook friends and may be related to educational trends that have emphasized self-esteem at the expense of other values.
Because social media is still in its infancy many more studies will likely be undertaken in an attempt to better understand what appears to be the dark side to this quickly expanding phenomenon.
The post is quite entertaining with the background information and connection between the Greek god and today’s known meaning of narcissism. With the connection to Facebook it does make sense that the people with more friends tend to be more narcissist because of the time they put into their “own online life.” People today are more into life online than the real world.
In his book Turow says that “social networking sites is an online location where people can interact with others information, entertainment, and news of their own choosing and, often, making.” (498) People have total control of their online accounts and can post anything they want as long as they are not caught or flagged by someone else. This gives them the power to be able to rely their whole page about themselves. Having that control over what everyone sees makes them more likely to post their perfect image and eventually be more narcissistic than they should be.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Prof. E.
MCCNM 101
I chose this topic because I couldn’t help but laugh and it’s a very interesting theory. I think there are several factors that play into this. The first thing that comes to mind is, that the internet has now become our social interaction. Fakebook and MySpace have replaced the old magazine tabloid, in a sense that it updates constantly and is available to everyone at any time to see whose who. The site has its own community and that person who has many friends, is now considered to have that celebrity status. This obviously adds to the inflation the person wants and is much easier to achieve. Posting pictures, commenting constantly, and uploading media, gives that person more of a chance to be found and accepted. I would really like to see people post pictures of themselves on telephone poles and mailboxes like they did in the past. The last part is, that the person doesn’t have to deal with rejection in-person. They don’t have to see the look of dismay or disapproval when confronted with a topic of what’s popular or cool. Instead, they would simply delete/ ignore negative messages and comments that can be done with a simple click and without second thought. So, I can see why Narcissus would have a Fakebook page. It would be too easy to achieve narcissistic status.
The End??
Kristalynn Morello
Prof. E
Media and Society
September 18th 2012
As I read this short article, I couldn’t help be recall a few times when I felt a few of my Facebook friends were narcissistic. Always worried about how many friends they had, how many likes a status had or how often they’d update their status. Honestly, it was rather obnoxious. They portrayed themselves as someone that was better than everyone else; when in reality most people don’t care. Is fascinating how a person can completely rely on Facebook or the Internet to determine their level of self-esteem. Quite frankly, I don’t find it surprising. Howver, it is sad, but it’s the reality of this new generation and the large effect the media and image has on this young generation.
I most definitely agree with this article. It is obvious that most people who are on Facebook are narcissistic. Why else would people post every detail of everything they do? When we really think about it, no one actually cares if Joe eats a sandwich. Facebook is based on narcissism. I am guilty of ths as well. I find it necessary to post every picture I have ever taken. I think it is sad that people have become this way. I think social media such as Facebook should be about connecting with other people, instead it has become a place to either brag or feel sorry for yourself and hope people feed your narcissism. Everyone who posts things on Facebook are looking for someone to comment to boost their self esteem. We should all make an effort to tone this down a little bit.
I have to disagree with the article as someone with nearly 700 facebook friends. I have checked my facebook several times to make sure I know all the people I have as friends because I have a lot of information about myself on the website and don’t want people I don’t know looking at it. I rarely even use my facebook longer than a few minutes a day simply because I don’t want to get sucked into it like some of the people who are on there all day. I feel as though having a lot of facebook friends shows you have a healthy social life not that you are a narcissist. It’s different if you are one of those people who adds a bunch of people you don’t know. Its definitely more about how you use the website. Some people use the site to throw their whole life on the web thinking that everyone wants to see what they are doing every ten minutes.
In my own opinion, if someone saw my Facebook they would most likely assume that I am a narcissist. I have 1,111 friends on Facebook and I’m almost positive that I know every single one of them. (I’ve tried to go through them all and delete people who don’t matter) However, I have recently noticed that Facebook is becoming the newer version of MySpace with people posting pictures of others saying, “She’s beautiful, add her now!” Why add someone who you don’t even know? The younger generations are taking over and I personally have cousins around the age of 6 who have a Facebook. Who are they supposed to contact? Their neighbor friend to schedule a play date?! Media has reached people to a whole new level. I didn’t get a cell phone till I was 13 and I didn’t have a social network page till high school. So why are young people reaching out with these technologies when they have basically no use for them? I believe children are out to have a mass amount of people on their page to look like they are important. Adults use these things to reach out to family and long lost friends. Narcissism can be analyzed on social networks but I would like to assume that not everyone with a vast amount of “friends” would be categorized as such.
I disagree with this survey. Using my own personal experiance, I don’t believe that narcissism is “directly” rooted to facebook. If you talk to my friends that know me closely, especially the ones I have met here at college, they would tell you I definatly have a self love of myself close to that of Narcissus. However when it comes to facebook I only add people I am close to and like, which means I have under a thousand so not a lot. Plus I hardly tag myself in photos and quite honestly I dislike when other people tag me. Lastly I update my newsfeed about once every other day. I’m definatly not one of the people that post every thought to go through their head. So in my case the survey done does not apply and I’m pretty sure that I cant be the only person.
i believe that self narcism is definitely strongly rooted or found on facebook. Those with a large number of friends are only concerned with the number of friends and there has not been a personal connection to more than half of the friends on facebook. Many of those people may also be self induldged due to the idea that they consistantly look at others photos as a way of comparing themselves to them. Comments and snarky remarks may also be translated and recorded on facebook as a way to draw attention and allow for the most comments. The more amount of comments, the higher level of narcism due to the fact that they attract the attention of others, whether it be positive or negative. The idea of narcism is portrayed through the amount of photos tagged on facebook, the amount of friends each person has without having an actual personal connection, and the amount of comments left.
This article talked about narcissism, its means that someone has a lot of self-love and vanity, based on a Greek story about the god named narcissus. The story was he saw himself in a reflection in a pool and was so in love with himself he couldn’t move from the pool and died. I feel like it is true that people who are like this have so many friends on facebook because they want people to see what they see, how much they love themselves. They want people to tell them how good they look and and comment and like their posts. I think that is why people check facebook so much to see what people think of them and they take everything other people say to be agents them. I think that is why facebook myspace twitter, and just sites like this where invented, so let people show their self-love to the world.
I believe that Facebook is an extremely narcissistic social network. Not only with the number of Facebook friends a person has though. We all know of the people that posts pictures just so that they can see how many likes the photo will get and how people will comment on them. Those are the types of people that have a ton of friends. Why? Simple, they just want “likes” and comments. These people are fishing for compliments and showing off themselves as much as they can. How is that not narcissism?
I think the facts about relating facebook friends with narcissism is somewhat true. I would think Twitter would have been a better study to do than facebook however just because people on Twitter update their feeds so much with mundane things that they believe people should care about. Personally though I can see how they would relate that to facebook with people constantly trying to be the center of attention always posting new statuses or pictures. I have around one thousand friends but thats mainly because I lived in a different state most of my life and now Colorado and I’m also very involved in sports, so I was a little shocked to hear that most people with large amounts of friends are likely to be narcissists. I thought if anything it would be the other way around; and by that I mean people who don’t love themselves or have a lower self esteem try to find happiness and belonging on social networks such as facebook. That way they could feel like they are more involved and actually matter to people to some extent. So the outcomes were unexpected however you can’t deny the research.
I agree completely with this concept. Many people spend all day on Facebook. I personally spend about half an hour on it each day, so I don’t really fit in this category. I know many people that update their statuses every 10 minutes. I don’t understand why, but they have to let the world know what they are doing that second. Besides Facebook there is Twitter. Twitter allows people to tell the world what they are doing every second of every day! All in all, I think within in a few years narcissism will sky rocket.
This post makes me laugh because of how true it is. There are so many people out there that are completely fascinated with themselves to a point where it’s almost disgusting. Many people use Facebook the right way which is completely fine but we all know those people and most of us even have some friends that are narcissistic and it makes it so hard even look at my news feed at times. I feel like many people need a reality check when it comes to this issue but its almost like it is an addiction for them.
I believe Narcisuss would have a Facebook page! After reading this article I began to really pay attention to how many people on Facebook have pictures of themselves. I am not judging but from my opinion the people who sit around and take photos of themselves in mirrors and bathrooms are narsissists, not only do they love pictures of themselves but they love pictures of themselves in restrooms for some reason. I, however, do not agree with the science behind how many Facebook friends you have and being a narcissist. I would think it would be quite the opposite. People usually do not want to be friends with people who are only into themselves.
This post is something i found very interesting and true. The most annoying thing about Facebook to me is those people who seem to be not only seeking attention and approval but seem to think that people really do care what they are doing from one minute to the next. Facebook is a useful tool to keep in touch with family and friends who may not live near you. But people have began to view it as though they now have some sort of celebrity status. Having thousands of people you don’t know or will probably never know get a peek into your life to me is creepy. Facebook has given the narcissist a place to flourish, and the insecure a place to let everyone see their attention seeking ways. I think people get addicted to the attention of seeing how many people “like” or comment on their posts or pictures and allow themselves to feel bad or good about it. I don’t see it healthy for many depressed or insecure individuals. Facebook is not an alternate universe some people wish it was.
It’s hard to agree one way or another with this post. I think Facebook is kind of constructed so that all you want to do is post pictures its meant to constantly provide a recent news feed, and comment on other pictures. Some students do seem overly vain because all they do is post pictures of themselves, after a while Facebook provides no entertainment value, most get off but there are just some people who will find means to entertain themselves on Facebook. Why would you want to have a social sites where you give out personal information for some on a daily, where you’re accepting people you don’t know, they have that information to do what ever they feel with. I feel like people who have thousands of friends on are trying to fill some void that isn’t fulfilled with other aspects of their lives. Social sites consume people and make them actually less sociable.
I’m not sure if I agree or disagree. I haven’t had a facebook for a while now (which life is way better without it). But it a way it kind of makes sense because why else would people post pictures of themselves, or post every little thing that is happening in their life if they didn’t feel important, or liked? But than again, people who aren’t as popular or attractive still post things to try and get likes, or to try and be like the people who get over 20 likes on a picture or post. Most of the time the friends people have on facebook aren’t their friends anyways. I would say when I had my facebook I probably new 1/4 of my friends, others were just mutual friends, or even random people I had never even seen before. Facebook is just for attention. Whether you are ugly and unpopular, or pretty and most popular, all your doing is looking for attention. I will say some people do use it for communication or to keep in touch with family that lives far away, or something like that. But most the time facebook is for attention, and creeping.
Well agreeing with most of the people here, I also have to disagree. I have a Facebook and I have just a tad over 300 friends (which is a lot) but what separates me from others is that I actually know these people and have hung out with them on several occasions each throughout my life. Yeah I have tons of friends that I doubt I will never see again in my entire life, let alone talk to them, but it doesn’t mean I’m an egotistical, narcissistic individual. But to contradict myself, I have to say that those who have five or six hundred friends just have them to say “Look, I have more friends than you do” and those people are narcissistic.Social networking for me is to keep in touch with family around the world, plan out weekends with close friends, and to keep an eye on gossip. Now would Narcissus own a Facebook? Heck yeah. He’d be the 800+ friend guy who copies quotes and posts them just to get attention. He’s the guy that will post a picture and say “Gosh I’m ugly” and wait for the comments to flow.
Narcissus would DEFINITELY have its own Facebook page. This is what Facebook is all about isn’t is? Everyone thinks that everyone else cares about what you are doing that exact moment and what is going on in your life. This is the rock that social networking is based on. Close to nobody cares about how much you love your boyfriend or that you’re going skiing this weekend because its the funnest thing ever. That’s how Americans are brought up in today’s society to think that every single person that they know is interested in what they’re doing in their free time.
Narcissism, is love for one’s self and in that case I don’t think it would have an effect on having a high amount of friends on facebook. Although with the great deal of social networking that we can have basically anywhere we go I can see that anyone could get narcissistic. People can have a facebook page, and twitter and they are basically building a monument to themselves on the internet. A person build could build a huge ego that way constantly being able to look back at themselves and thinking that they are the best person in the world. This I am sure is more or less an addiction to a form of mass media which in this case serves the purpose of a mirror. An interesting thought though is super inflated self-esteem at fault for this narcissism induced social networking addiction or is this more or less a bandage/facade that people but over themselves if they have low self-esteem. I would imagine a high self-esteem means you are confidant with yourself and the faults you have, not have a super inflated self-esteem and think you have no flaws. Social networking media has its use in more instant and massive sharing of important information, but it seems instead it may be fueling super inflated self-esteem into an addiction.
Media has developed am imagine that young, old, short, fat, tall and skinny people want. More and more people are trying to find self gratification through the way they dress, act and look. This in turn is creating an era of self absorbed people who are in words of the article “narcissist”. However, Facebook brings in a whole new look to this issue. Facebook allows an individual to present themselves in a manner which is fitting to them. The over load of mirror pictures demonstrating a sexy stand out, or a professional business person who is looking to further their career, is completely up to the user. Depending on the number of friends you have can be traced back to the number of places you lived and visited, activities you are involved in and your social ability to meet new people. I don’t believe that the number of Facebook friends determines a narcissist person. I do believe that a narcissist person is likely to have many friends due to the self acceptance issues that usually come with this type of behavior. Facebook is a resting home for many self absorbed people who are constantly posting pictures and updating status but, let’s not forget the beautiful opportunities Facebook allows for one to network and meet people who could help benefit the future of an individual. Facebook is a brilliant source of communication that allows all typed of advertising, PR and business opportunities. With this comes the increase of friends you may have which is not narcissist behavior in the least.
This is an interesting point of view. I think to an extent it may be a little far-fetched, but it in some instances may be the truth. I think that the comparison between the number of friends you have and being a narcissist is to much. I have close to 400 friends, but in no way does that reflect the amount of time I spend on Facebook. More often than not I am uploading photos of friend and family and updating my status according to what special events I was participating in. However, I feel that I could use this term for a few of my Facebook friends, because they seem to fit into the idea. I find that they spend more time posting pictures of themselves and complaining about their lives than they do interacting with their friends. So in a way this term may be correct in the way that people feel the need to present to everyone the “best” of themselves. This need to be “perfect” is the creation of social media, without this concept social media would be just like real life. It would be everything the good the bad and the in-between, rather than just the so called good. Would Narcissus have had a Facebook, I would have to say no, because the chances of him looking away from himself long enough to create an account is very slim.
This is really a weird finding to me. I don’t agree with the number of friends you have with being a narcissist. I have more than 1,000 friends on Facebook and I would not consider myself to be a narcissist. It’s just that my parents are divorced and live in different cities, which means I know a lot of people from both cities. Also, traveling to college and then transferring out to Colorado from Minnesota has helped me meet more people. I do see the correlation of people tagging themselves in their own photos and being narcissist however. I always thought it was strange that people would tag themselves in their own pictures, or even take pictures of just them self. I feel like to me if this is actually true rather than just being a coincidence, I have way more narcissist girls on Facebook than guys. I feel like girls are more needy to know if they are accepted by people rather than just letting people accept them. However, I do know a few guys like this also, its just that it seems to be more of the females. I agree with what Jovan said about Narcissus having a facebook, or more like not having one because he would be to into himself rather that care what others say.
I knew someone who felt they needed to be accepted and in order to do so had to have every person they come in contact with, as well as some they didn’t, as friends on Facebook but at the same time had no tags and hardly any posts. I do believe that this theory is correct and Social Narcissism is relevant. I however am hard to accept that everyone who is on Facebook cant be even a little narcissistic.Social media has proven to be a way to show off the good, show off the best in most cases. As a response to the question of if Narcissus having a Facebook, I believe he wouldn’t. He was way to into himself to care even in the slightest what others thought to keep up on a social network. His world unlike ours, consisted of himself.
Relating Facebook and Narcissistic trends would have never crossed my mind before, but after reading this article, the connection between the two fascinates me. Facebook initially was not intended to become any sort of alter for self-obsessed people to relieve themselves of their obsession, like a personal blog or website might have become. Facebook’s main purpose was to connect people with each other, but over time, it has become apparent that there is a slight underlying competition between people and the amount of friends they have. In reality, half the people that even I have on my friends list I have met once, and surely am not interested enough to be updated regularly on their life. Of course, I do believe Narcissus would have a Facebook page with countless friends, and I think he would be uploading an overload of photos and updates, when he could un-glue himself from the mirror, that is. Its difficult to admit, but don’t be all have a little Narcissus in us? More and more people are identifying these narcissistic tendencies in themselves, and deleting a plethora of friends. Fortunately, it seems that people are beginning to realize that Facebook was created to be connected with all your friends and about sharing content, not an alter dedicated to yourself.
Facebook… a place for connections and other ways to stay updated with the world. In this case it takes the meaning of certain people who have personalities more prone to be narcissistic making Facebook all about themselves. I couldn’t agree more. There are many different types of users on Facebook and the ones that we usually unsubscribe from their posts tend to be those described above. Not only could we measure a person’s narcissistic behavior by the number of friends they have (or wish they had in real life), but by the number of posts per day, comments generated per day, number of status updates in an hour and how many “likes” they give out to their ridiculous amount of “friends” every day. I am not just talking about Narcissus but there are many people that I have had to unsubscribe from that could possibly be descendants of his because I couldn’t stand reading about what kind of beverage they are drinking, with who, where, wearing what shoes every fifteen minutes! Narcissus is alive and well today, maybe not in his origional form from Greek Mythology but in eveyone on Facebook that never seems to log out.
Facebook is a social networking site used to connect with family and friends. After reading this article, the idea of narcissism related to the number of friends one has on Facebook makes entire sense. It is easy to add and tag pictures of yourself and to update what you are doing on a daily basis. These types of things make you become noticed and seem almost more interesting to people. It also seems to have an addicting power over them. Most people view the site as time wasting, but a more narcissist person enjoys spending the time filling the news feeds with nonsense about themselves. This could also be another reason why they have so many friends because they get themselves noticed more. Although, having a lot of friends does not necessarily mean that you are a “socially disruptive narcissist.” It simply means that you can add anyone and everyone who sends a friend request. So basically, not everyone on Facebook is a narcissist. It could just possible mean that they have actually met that many people through various occasions or are trying to meet more people. It is a social networking site after all. But I do believe that Narcissus would have a Facebook if he could.
It makes complete sense to me that narcissistic people have more friends on Facebook and update their status’ more frequently. Narcissistic people are vain, and think only of themselves so it is natural for them to spend a lot of time on Facebook, uploading tons of pictures of themselves and tagging themselves in everyone else’s pictures. Of course they also feel the need to update their status all the time because they feel that whatever they are thinking is important and that other people need to know the thoughts that run through their brain. Narcissistic people also have a tendency to nit-pick at other people on social networking sites because it is another way for them to build their self-esteem and keep their thoughts on how superior and wonderful they are. They add anyone who friend requests them and they constantly are searching for new friends because they want to be seen as important and they want everyone else to think they are important too. Narcissism is like a disease constantly spreading through these social networking sites, and i don’t see it stopping any time soon.
After reading the article, it was no shock to me to hear that Narcissus had started during the Greek times. This displays that people have been concerned about their appearances, attitudes towards others and portraying different life since that time. Today, facebook is full of personal pictures, which usually are posted in order to attract others to become their friends. Majority of the people on facebook are attempting to impress, not only themselves but also their peers. The article is true based on the fact that people are more into themselves and what they think catches others eyes. For example, some people love to post everything in their lives, but the question is; can we trust everything that they post? Or do we just filter out the truth from the fake? Soon facebook will be outdated and then something new will replace it, but have the same concept.
Yes this is very true in several occasions. Id hate to say it but many names and faces went through my head when reading this article. As before reading this article it was still a pretty obvious notion that goes on daily on my news feed.i really like the idea of narcissus and his self love and vanity being compared to the Facebook user looking for attention.these people believe other people find them very interesting.so they tend to tell the world what they are doing at all times and post photos of their everyday life. But wait isn’t that what facebook is for? I believe thiere is a fine line for using social networking for self gain and simply for the use of Facebook to keep in contact with friends. People post very personal and sometimes reviling photos. Do they not relize that they are giving others access to their personal lives.
I never really thought of facebook making people narcissistics, I kind of always saw it as there are just some people who are naturally into themselves and facebook is just a gateway to show more people who good they look or what awesome things they are doing with their life. You don’t see everyone you are friends with everyday so facebook is a way to show them how great you are everyday. I do think that people who are into themselves have more friends on facebook because having more friends makes people more popular and people who are into themselves think everyone else is too so having so many friends make them feel good. I also agree with Pearse when he said that narcissistic people on facebook that scored high on the GG were more likely to add random people they don’t know and seek social support because self-centered people always want to be the center of attention and have their problems discussed and fixed, but don’t really care about others. I feel like this new generation is just naturally more narcissistic and always want attention and facebook doesn’t make them that way but yet helps bring out their true colors; people just want everything all about them.
The idea that Narcissistic people tend to have a lot of friends on facebook and probably spend a lot of their time on the website was not shocking to me at all. There are so many people who primarly use facebook to post pictures of themselves taken in a mirror and post deeply emotional quotes that they found online somewhere to make themselves seem more interesting. Their primary goal is to see how many likes and comments they can get rather than to try to stay in touch with distant friends and relavtives. I definitely wouldn’t say that everyone on facebook is a narcissist but it is pretty easy to spot those who are.
After reading this blog and the article represented, the idea of being a social narcissists makes complete sense. I’m sure many people know many other people who are social narcissists. With so many social media websites, it is easy for one to become narcissistic. With the studies showing the correlation between Facebook and narcissism, it is plain to see how simple and easily one can become a narcissist. However, I would have to agree with Jordan in saying that the relationship of how many friends one has to being a narcissist is not necessarily accurate. The reasons Jordan gives are true, but also, some people are involved in many things where they travel a lot and have opportunity to meet a lot of people. In these cases, they will have a lot of friends on Facebook but that doesn’t mean they are a narcissist. So to answer the question of the blog, I definitely do think Narcissus would have a Facebook page… that is, if he could get away from the pool!
I think this theory makes a lot of sense because if you think about it the more someone tags themself in photos or updates their newsfeed, the more intersting they find themself. I mean why else would someone post a ton about themself dailey if they didn’t find themself or what they have to say interesting? And in my own opinion, finding yourself interesting is a form of fascination with yourself. Someone who posts lots of pictures of themself obviously finds themself good looking and wants everyone else to see them in that light as well. Even though science shows a correlation between the amount of freinds someone has on Facebook and a narcissistic personality, I don’t necessarily agree. I think a lot of people have a ton of freinds on facebook simply because they will add anyone who looks even remotely attractive, or simply because they don’t have enough freinds in the real world. But with all of this said, I definitely think that if Narcicuss were alive he would have a facebook and he’d post things almost by the minute.
This passage talks about Narcissus, a Greek god that was so into himself he saw the image in a reflecting pool and was so captivated by himself that he wasn’t able to move away from the pool. The author of this passage decided to also incorporate Facebook into this story and explain the amount of Facebook friend’s people have due to how much they like themselves. This is very interesting; I never thought that far ahead as to thinking that the more people are into themselves the more Facebook friends they have. I can’t necessarily say that I agree with this assumption because I have a fair amount of confidence but I only have 500 friends. I also know the most insecure people with way more Facebook friends than I have. I guess a narcissus can be more than “thinking they look nice” because with Facebook it’s all about what people think of you, that shows how many friends you have or can get. If people like the way you look they’ll add you as friend so I don’t really think people have more Facebook friends by how good they think they look but of course someone could have a different opinion.