We all have those annoying Facebook friends who only can't stop posting selfies. As soon every bit they cross the threshold of a location, they create a check-in status and they never neglect to inform us if they feel "excited" or "relaxed" at that place. Somewhen, nosotros block such people - simply and then over again, aren't we all like that at times? Psychologists warn that narcissistic, self-exposing behavior is on the ascent nowadays, and many blame social media for this increment.

A modern pandemic

Studies show that the levels of subclinical narcissism - or the personality trait that all normal individuals possess to a sure degree - have increased worldwide since the 1970s. Self-esteem is rapidly rising, too - according to data published in the Review of General Psychology, 80% of American students scored higher in self-esteem in 2006 than the generation from 1988. Scientists take likewise found that today's young people are more likely than older adults to have e'er experienced Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or the clinical dimension of narcissism.

Can we explain this sudden epidemic with the advent of social media?

As it turns out, narcissism is not a stable personality trait, just rather a manifestations dependent largely on the environment. For instance, media can influence whether we act every bit narcissists. A recent study showed that people exposed to egotistic reality Television characters exhibit college levels of narcissism immediately afterwards.

Other data also supports this theory: a paper from 2011 found that teenagers who use Facebook more than often evidence more egotistic tendencies than their peers. Increased Facebook use is directly linked to narcissism in adults, too, indicate results from a self-report report published this Baronial.

So, what turns social networks into incubators for self-absorbed individuals?

Mirror, mirror

The reason lies in their nature. As psychologist Eric B. Weiser states - social networks may create or reinforce narcissistic tendencies considering they serve primarily every bit self-promotional platforms.

However, the opposite may as well hold true - more narcissists will be agile on social media as these platforms permit them to engage in exhibitionistic, attending-seeking, and cocky-promoting behaviors.

Allow'southward also keep in mind that people with egotistic characters need admiration from others. Their grandiose self-views thrive on easy-to-obtain social media endorsements such as likes, shares, or new followers. Furthermore, narcissists prefer superficial connections with other people, and are really bad at listening and expressing empathy - this over again makes social networks a very tempting surroundings for them.

How to spot a narcissist online?

Although nosotros all become narcissistic on social media, some remain more vocal then others in their cocky-expression. So how can you pick out narcissistic behaviors that go beyond the normal levels?

The first affair to pay attention to is their photos - people with egotistic tendencies care very much about pictures. For case, they're more probable to wear expensive, flashy article of clothing on photos, and their general appearance reveals a lot of preparation.

These conclusions were made in a study that aimed to observe whether people tin make up one's mind if others are narcissists just by looking at their photos. As part of the process, researchers identified xvi visual cues that reveal if a person in a photograph is narcissistic, and all of those cues were related to narcissists' desire to exist the center of attention. For instance, female narcissists tend to wear make-upwardly and show cleavage more oft than other women. Male person narcissists are more probable to wear dress that enhance their social status, and less likely to have sunglasses in photos.

As a rule, people with college scores on narcissism are more than motivated to select profile photos on Facebook that emphasize their attractiveness. This data comes from Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich. The research team analyzed the Facebook presence of 288 students and asked them nearly their motivation to choose particular images.

Like results tin be plant in a more detailed paper that examined how narcissism is generally manifested on social media - the researchers coded the Facebook pages of 156 students according to criteria such as photos, action on the platform, number of lines in the About section. A group of contained "observers" was then asked to view each Facebook contour and respond questions on the content. The findings showed that, indeed, participants with college scores of narcissism postal service more attractive photos. Their images were also perceived as "more entertaining" past the external observers.

The report also discovered that narcissistic users accept more than Facebook friends than others, create more than posts in general, and more than self-promotional posts than informative ones in particular, while they also write longer descriptions in the About section of their pages.

The researchers linked the larger number of friends with the fact that narcissists adopt weak ties, or shallow connections, and like to win Facebook friends equally trophies. Another possible caption could be that narcissistic people are typically extroverted - co-ordinate to a meta-analysis of 62 studies on social media and narcissism published recently, narcissists' tend to have more friends and generate more than content on social media may, in part, be linked to their extraversion.

If yous presume that excessive posting on social media would also mean that narcissistic individuals spend more time on their smartphones, well, you are wrong - it turns out, surprisingly, that narcissists are less dependent on the touchscreen than others. A smartphone information-tracking report analyzed how much time people spent on mobile every twenty-four hours and found that participants with higher smartphone usage typically have lower scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. According to the authors, this can exist explained by the fact that people more often than not use their smartphones for social interaction, which is exactly what narcissists avoid. Monitoring social media feeds of others or experiencing the fear of missing out (FOMO) are not typical for narcissism, but chronicle more to neuroticism.

Another course of proof that someone is egotistic can be establish in his or her writing style. Do they use "I", "me" or "my" a lot? Do they swear? Researchers from University of Georgia did a linguistic analysis on individual Facebook pages based on the fact that narcissists tend to speak more than about themselves and use more personal pronouns. However, when there were no showtime-person pronouns in the texts, narcissistic authors used other exact tactics to attract attention to their content - they used more profane and antisocial terms. A linguistic analysis of g Twitter accounts yielded like results - people with higher levels of narcissism were found to utilise more words about acrimony and negative emotions and fewer words most social interaction.

Interestingly, several studies accept too found a connection between narcissism and cyberbullying. Although there are unlike opinions on what type of narcissism better predicts cyberbullying behavior, ane thing is clear: people with an emphasized egotistic trait frequently try to attract attention by using bad language or more straight exact attacks.

Selfies from around the globe

A common feature for the social media presence of narcissists is an abundance of selfies.

Results from a survey completed by 1200 US residents reveal that two dimensions of narcissism positively correlate with the frequency of posting selfies on social media. These are the "Leadership/Authorisation" type, attributed to individuals who seek ability and say-so over others, and the "Exhibitionism/Grandiosity" type, which reflects self-absorption, vanity, and attention-seeking.

And There'south more to that. Non just are narcissists more likely to produce selfies, the very deed of taking selfies alone makes people more egotistic. Results from a longitudinal report show an increase in the subsequent levels of narcissism in people who photograph themselves more often.

Some other paper examined the relationship between narcissism and various types of selfie posting behaviors - posting solo selfies, selfies with a group, and editing selfies. The results indicate that narcissists post more than solo selfies and edit their selfies more often than other people.

Lastly, thought-provoking data: researcher David K. Taylor from Sacred Heart University found that narcissistic people mail service more travel photos on Facebook. Certainly it doesn't mean that they gallivant more. Travel images are a type of self-promoting content, and as such they are published with the idea to attract attending and enhance our social status.

The nigh narcissistic platform...

At that place are more egotistic users on Twitter than on Facebook, according to a written report from 2013. Shawn Bergman and his colleagues analyzed posting behaviors and motivation for social media utilise of 500 students and found that college students who scored college on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory preferred Twitter. This tin be explained wby the fact that the platform encourages posting frequent updates and accumulating shallow, non-reciprocal relationships (followers), which are virtually likely desired by narcissists.

However, the researchers acknowledge that the nature of the two platforms is unlike, and that Facebook as well offers opportunity for cocky-promotion with features aimed at embellishing one's personal Facebook page - for example, changing the contour photo, filling out the Most section, adding 1's interests, etc. The results from the study also show that Facebook is the preferred option for adults with narcissistic tendencies, while Twitter remains the platform of choice for younger narcissists.

Faster growing visual platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat must likewise be considered. Instagram, for example, was found to concenter younger audience with narcissistic tendencies, and the main motivation of narcissistic Instagram users was to appear "cool" in the eyes of their followers. In another report, 124 students filled out an online survey that measured both their levels of narcissism and their preference for specific social media platforms. Regular users of Snapchat and Instagram exhibited higher levels of the Exhibitionism/Grandiosity dimension of narcissism than users of Facebook and Twitter.

Me, my cell phone and I

We're all narcissistic to some extent. In the digital zeitgeist, self-exposure has get an like shooting fish in a barrel way to communicate, which many of us comprehend. Ironically, however, people create polished online versions of themselves with the aim to attract others, and harvest just the opposite results.

The truth is that narcissistic content is perceived unfavorably past social media users. A recent report collected status updates from 316 Facebook pages and presented them as screenshots to a group of people. To ensure objectivity, details like profile photos, names, and other page information were blurred. The observers were asked to evaluate the status updates based on criteria such as likeability, successfulness, and likelihood of beingness friends with the author of the status.

The results showed that people who posted narcissistic status updates (e. g. ''Purging my friends listing. Proficient luck making the cut'') were perceived every bit less likeable, less successful, and less worthy of friendship than those who posted less narcissistic or neutral status updates (e. 1000. ''I know everything will exist okay. Nobody tin can bring me down'').

So, think twice before you humblebrag about a new job or upload some other selfie. Instead, maybr link to a cat video: it'll certainly provoke more honest likes.

How to Spot a Narcissist on Social Media | Social Media Today

The vector images used to create the visuals above are from Pixabay.com. Many thanks to all the authors.