Narcissists, Insecure People Flock To Facebook

Meshach writes "A study out of Canada claims that Facebook is a magnet for narcissists and people with low self-esteem. The theory is that these people use the site as a means of self promotion or to feel important."

Shameless promoters?

[Haffner]

Most of my friends that are still active facebookers tend to use it for business means. One amusing direction for facebook would be a bunch of promoters saying "Hey, come to my club, you're cool just for coming!" and narcissists thinking, "Yeah, I should definitely go, it'll make me look cooler!" and in the end, facebook will be win-win-win, where the promoters, the narcissists, and the sane minority all get their way.

Flawed study is flawed

[helixcode123]

According to TFA the study sample involved college students. What about other demographic groups? For most of the more "mature" folks I know that use Facebook it's a means of keeping in touch with distant friends, or to maintain a bit of social connection in a life dominated by work and family obligations.

Re:HOLY CRAP!!

[DanTheStone]

They're extrapolating too far outside the sample. The sample was 100 university students. They don't adequately represent the population that uses Facebook. Plus, we have no idea how they ranked the narcissism and self-esteem listed in TFA. If narcissism was determined by how much you tell other people about what you do, of course people using Facebook would rank highly on that scale.

Southpark told us this months ago

[fartingfool]

Is this really news? Southpark already pointed out the obvious. [southparkstudios.com]

Re:...what ?

[Zeek40]

In related news, a three year long Canadian study that recently concluded has revealed that snow is cold and water is wet.

Keyword "narcissist" a lot more in the news lately

[cshay]

In remember when I only heard the word "narcissist" and "narcissism" in the college classroom and in self help books. But in the last 2 years I think its usage has been climbing dramatically. Anyone with Lexus-Nexus access care to check? I think it was a lyric in a few pop songs so maybe that's the cause.....

Re:HOLY CRAP!!

[networkBoy]

Based on the number of friends I have, and the number of announcements of "hey join me at farm wars" Vs. "hai Im in ur survey you can haz cheezburger" Vs. "L@@K at me, L@@K what I did 11!111!!!" I'd say that the survey is fairly accurate. Taking that further to the couple people I *know* to have low self esteem and the one true narcissist I know, and how much time they spend on FB, yeah I think the survey is spot on.
-nB

Re:HOLY CRAP!!

[icebike]

The most prominent objections to the story on the CTV linked story were from people (claim to) who use Facebook as a means to keep up with old friends.

Fair enough. But one has to ask if this is all that healthy in and of itself. In the history of human kind, people move on in life. Old friends remain, but new friends are made.

One wonders how many of these "friendship maintainers" are really substituting old friends for new ones, clinging to some happy period in their past, and cutting themselves off from the present. Its not that normal to be involved in or even knowledgeable of the day to day lives of people you do not communicate directly with. It never has been.

Is there any gratification in Facebook? (I wouldn't know, never signed up). Is there really as much grandiosity as you suggest? Or is it more just a means of clinging?