Social Networking and Narcissistic Behavior Essay

The biggest influence of personality are childhood experiences and the way in which parents choose to raise their kids. The shift in parenting styles contributes to the growing levels of narcissistic attitudes presented in the youngest generation. Because of the shift in values, the media evolved to highlight vain celebrities instead of focusing on the successes of brilliant, hard-working people. Social media takes away the emotional involvement in relationships and replaces those feelings with shallow gratification that causes people to grow an unhealthy attachment to the social network. Nothing can replace the convenience of social media, but if society changes the way it views online relationships then the focus will shift from having online relationships to improving interpersonal communication. Narcissism is a problem that can be fixed with healthy role-models and a positive, unselfish outlook that starts with how parents treat their children’s successes and

What is Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a mental disorder where someone has an exaggerated sense of their own presence, a need for constant admiration from others and they also have a lack of empathy for anyone (Mayo Clinic). A couple questions I have include: How does social media effect society? How does social media have an effect on someone diagnosed with NPD, What are ways you can help someone with NPD, and what are some ways we can conclude that someone may have NPD on social networking sites? Social media is what’s hot right now and someone diagnosed with NPD will only get wrapped up in its web and will be negatively impacted by it. The main focus of my research to further my knowledge includes: The risk factors social media have on someone diagnosed with NPD, signs on social media of someone who may have NPD, and so on.

Millenials enjoy having a good self image, but more importantly, being accepted by society. These people use Facebook, and other social media sites, to look important and gain self-esteem by getting as many likes as possible on a photo. These photos posted could create an unrealistic portrait of that person, argues Soraya Mehdizadeh, but could this also be a way for people to express their identity, counters Alex Lambert? Soraya Mehdizadeh and Alex Lambert argue their reasons for why or why not social media may be narcissistic. It is a controversial subject because it can be hard to tell if this so called narcissism is a social norm now or if it is simply narcissism in itself. It is under psychological discussion because some psychologists argue it could be a disorder due to the fact that some people may be obsessed with social media and promoting a positive self image, so others think highly of them. Throughout the articles, the pros and cons of social media are weighted, and it seems that social media facilitates narcissisms because millenial’s are so prone to using it and older people only use it to keep connections with friends.

There is debate over these social networking sites; do the benefits outweigh the dangers? Some people argue that social networking sites promote increased communication with friends and family, familiarize people with valuable computer skills, and allow contact and interactions with people from around the world. Others argue that these sites expose children to predators, increase vulnerability to computer viruses, lower worker productivity, and promote narcissism and short attention spans. Social networking sites entice people to spend more time online and less time involved in face-to-face interaction. On an average day it is said that American’s waste about 17% of their day on the internet interacting on social media and networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace. The popularity of these sites has more than

Can the excessive use of social media, specifically Facebook, be seen as a form of narcissism? Editors Edwin E. Gantt and Brent Slife of Brigham Young University present two opposing opinions to explore this topic in their presentation, “Is Excessive Use of Social Media a Form of Narcissism?”. Could the oversharing, “duck face”, and look at me virtual world be a way to reach out to each other or just a shallow attempt at self-validation? Each article expresses the author’s views, and research on the subject.

Relationships and intimacy are important during adulthood, especially during young adulthood. Happiness at this developmental stage often come from relationships that are formed. Even young adults who are not looking to form long-term or lasting relationships typically still focus on connections with others.

When online, people are blocked off from hearing and seeing these non-verbal suggestions. “As human beings, our only real method of connection is through authentic communication. Studies show that only 7% of communication is based on the written or verbal word. A whopping 93% is based on nonverbal body language.” (Tardanico). This can be a real problem to society because if a person acts as if he or she was fine online, they could really be hiding their true feelings, and others would never know. “Awash in technology, anyone can hide behind the text, the e-mail, the Facebook post or the tweet, projecting any image they want and creating an illusion of their choosing.” (Tardanico). The person may be feeling upset, depressed, or suicidal, and all others can see is the way they pretend to be online. Without nonverbal cues, others will never know the true emotions behind the computer or phone screen. Another issue if that “Soon, they will neglect their family and friends as they are too engrossed with the social networking sites…” (Social Networking-Destroyed Communication Essay). Essentially, social networking sites have caused families to slowly drift farther apart. As well, family bonds and friendships are being worn down and broken. Social networking has caused the importance of face-to-face communication to lessen; now we depend on little emoticons and the way the person

Narcissism is a multiplex concept and represents different characteristics, demonstrative of both good and horrible practices (Kubarych et al, 2004) that may clarify the inspirations driving social networking sites use. In this way, conceptualizing narcissism as only a sole construct may make us misconstrue the ways in which social networking platforms are utilized to fulfill different psychological needs. Research has begun to analyze how undesirable parts of narcissistic identity identify with conduct on Facebook (Carpenter, 2012).

Today, a term called “digital narcissism,” is the driving force for the everyday person which creates a “tiny universe of prominence” by carefully crafting our identities through social media. This concept was introduced by writer Andrew Keen, “A self-promotional madness driven by our need to continually manufacture our own fame to the world” (ajkeen.com). Society seems to be embracing, even chasing the spotlight that Truman was so eager to escape. Truman wanted to escape the shackles of his caged celebrity. We believe that fame brings us importance. We want to flee our mediocrity and become something like Truman. Like Truman, though, we want to be in control of our own narratives, which is why we see so many reality TV stars eager to get on

The article I chose for this critique was “Narcissism and Social Networking Web Sites” written by Laura E. Buffardi and W. Keith Campbell from the University of Georgia. This article is based on an experiment that was taken place to prove whether others could perceive a narcissistic individual as a narcissist through observing their social media sites. This experiment was a correlational type of study. The experimenters’ goal was to analyze whether there was any correlation or connection between the web page owner being a narcissist and the type of content they had on their profile.

Throughout the years, numerous of researches are conducted to see the connections between social media (namely, Facebook) and narcissism. University of Michigan conducted a research to find the relationship between social media and narcissism. For the first part of the study, the researchers recruited approximately around 486 college undergraduate students with the median age of 19. Meanwhile, 93 adults, mostly white females, with an age mean of 35 years old, were asked by the researchers to complete an online survey for the second part of the study. Participants have to answer questions about their social media use and a personality assessment to measure their level of narcissism (Swanbrow, 2013). Based on the results obtained, Facebook users that scores higher on the personality test tend to have more friends, tag themselves more often in photos posted and update their status more often (Firestone, 2012,

Living in the 21st century requires one to stay current with latest technological advancements. Ever since the development of social networking sites, people are now able to create a carefully-crafted identity for themselves. This has led psychologists to question how well these online personalities match the person in front of the computer. The innovative branch of media psychology looks into how social networking portrays individuals and initiates human interactions within a society.

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In have gained a widespread audience across the world. Although the original intentions of these social sites were positive, these mediums of social interaction now have negative effects.

Narcissism is often perceived as any other disorder, employing too much of something; committing excessive amount of time on the internet. However, narcissism disorder is not merely a problem of unmoderated usage, rather it’s the illusion of perceiving reality in false lens architected by vanity and superficial relationships over social media. In Dr. L.D Rosen publication titled Is Facebook creating iDisorders? The link between clinical symptoms of psychiatric disorders and technology use, attitudes and anxiety, Rosen stated “younger generations… born in the 1990s…show a strong urge to report their activities and believe that their social media audience cares about them, two symptoms central to the diagnostic criteria of narcissistic personality disorder” (Rosen 1244). Rosen statement offers a new insight to the effects of extreme social media behaviors on narcissism. Through her work as a social psychologist, Rosen has discovered surprising new information about social disorder. Instead of seeing technology itself as the problem, Rosen thinks, the problem is located "in the relationship between what takes place on screen and off in someone’s ability to shift frames or genres (Rosen 1243)." Rosen

The use of SNSs (social network sites) can have both positive and negative effects on the individual; however, few studies identify the types of people who frequent these Internet sites