An ABC Columnist posted an article this last weekend, and interviewed Scott Bradley, whom I have been working with and really gotten to know pretty well over the past little while.
This columnist for this article has also listed a study from a graduate student saying that “the number of Facebook friends and wall posts that people have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism”.
“Simply put, narcissists are people who think they’re pretty great. … They think they’re more attractive, more intelligent, more unique and entitled to special treatment,” said Lauren Buffardi, a University of Georgia graduate student and lead author of a study that will be published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin next month.
WikiPedia defines the term this way: Narcissism describes the trait of excessive self-love, based on self-image or ego. It further goes on to say: In psychology andpsychiatry, excessive narcissism is recognized as a severe personality dysfunction or personality disorder, most characteristically Narcissistic personality disorder, also referred to as NPD. Sigmund Freud believed that some narcissism is an essential part of all of us from birth and was the first to use the term in the reference to psychology.
Andrew Morrison claims that, in adults, a reasonable amount of healthy narcissism allows the individual’s perception of his needs to be balanced in relation to others.
As a Publicist, I personally think that social media is a way to connect with friends, acquaintances, and to reach out and find and build new relationships, and for those who are using these services (communities) for more than strictly personal reasons, are doing so to brand themselves. Let’s face it, Social Media is all about branding yourself whether or not that is your main intent. Every good social media site, whether it’s a social networking site, crafts/hobby review or sales site, or a voting site, they are all using tools to make them more “friendly”, thus encouraging you to make friends.
Wanting to have more friends is not narcissistic. Some people are naturally more social, and those who aren’t have online avenues to practice their social skills. There are so many uses for all the different social media apps, it would be a shame to lump everyone who uses them, and has too many friends, a Narcissist! Would you consider every celebrity, whether they are singers, actors, musicians, etc Narcissists?
Also, another point to make here is that just because you have tons of friends, doesn’t mean that you sought them all out…it’s funny how other people actually seek other people out. The more famous you are, the more friends you are apt to have, and just because someone accepts your friendship, doesn’t mean they have narcissistic tendencies.
Jack Humphrey recently posted about this same article, and said: “I guess that’s one way to look at self promotion, which is all anyone is doing on social sites regardless of their motives. For marketers, it is about letting people know who you are and what your expertise is. According to my untrained background in psychology, that could mean a person’s resume could also be described as narcissistic as well.”
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