A new study, from York University, finds that Facebook users are basically a bunch of narcissists. What better way to talk about the thing you love the most—yourself—then to constantly preen your online profile and make sure your friend count is as high as possible?
The study has been published in the latest edition of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour And Social Networking.
The study doesn’t single out Facebook “just because,” but it’s the biggest social networking site out there, so it tends to attract the people mentioned on the study.
And who are these people? Narcissists mainly, people with “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance.”
Yup, sounds about right.
The study, which looked at 100 students from the age of 18 to 25 at the university, also finds that people who constantly check their Facebook profile—you know who you are—often suffer from low self-esteem. A sort of, “I sure hope my ‘friends’ like me, I really really do!”
That’s basically a manifestation of the link between lack of self-esteem and narcissism, the constant need to tell people that you’re awesome.
Perhaps The Miz, of WWE fame, is nothing more than a fragile soul looking for the acceptance of total strangers.
Fun little study, this.