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Narcissists, Insecure People Flock To Facebook

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the nobody-likes-this dept.

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."

25 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. HOLY CRAP!! by Ambiguous+Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I mean, really, WOW!

    --
    Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
    1. Re:HOLY CRAP!! by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I mean, really, WOW!

      It's not as surprising as that. In fact, I would not call it much of a surprise at all.
      Probably the same can be said for MySpace and any other "social" site - they appeal to some mix of the insecure (such as teenagers) and the narcissistic (a particular kind of sociopath, often an adult). I had a FaceBook account for a short while, then saw what other people were doing there (people I know), and decided not to be a part of the vacuous trumpeting that substitutes for interaction. My FaceBook account was zombified quite a while ago - all its content deleted.

      --
      Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    2. Re:HOLY CRAP!! by hedwards · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, I call bullshit on that. Twitter is the site of narcissists.

    3. Re:HOLY CRAP!! by causality · · Score: 2, Insightful

      At least we know your sarcasometer is properly calibrated. :)

      I hate to break it to you and to Slashdot in general, but not every response to the underlying sentiment behind the sarcasm is a failure to understand that it was, in fact, sarcasm. The uptake of this idea is low because it might give the peanut gallery a little less to chuckle about.

      About Facebook, I've been saying this for a long time now on various other Slashdot stories that mention it. I usually use the term "exhibitionist" to describe what is clearly not a desire that would occur to mentally healthy people with joyful fulfilling lives. The reason I don't participate in sites like Facebook is because I don't need the casual attention of strangers and distant acquaintences in order to feel special and important.

      If I had a need to feel special and important at all it would be a sign that I need to check my ego. Those things are a chasing after the wind. At their best, they can produce a momentary sense of gratification shortly followed by a need for more. There's no lasting joy, meaning, or well-being to be found in them. They're as empty as the hollow people who chase after them hoping to find a sense of worth. There's no real fulfillment, just a bunch of fools looking to be filled with the attentions of others.

      That's why social networking sites have been a big headline-making craze, a trendy bandwagon, and not just another thing people happen to be doing for the fun of it. It has to be glamorous and talked-about and made into a public spectacle. That's what the people who flock to it have a deep-seated unhealthy need to experience. The trend and the headlines are just rushing in to fill their vacuum. What a sorry substitute for addressing the real problems of the deep sense of alienation, fear, pessimism, divisiveness, selfishness, need for drama, lack of community, and lack of love that so thoroughly characterizes modern society.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    4. Re:HOLY CRAP!! by causality · · Score: 2, Insightful

      At their best, they can produce a momentary sense of gratification shortly followed by a need for more. There's no lasting joy, meaning, or well-being to be found in them.

      Brother, that's life. Period. Get your ephemeral joy in because there is no other kind of happiness to be had.

      A lot of people feel the way that you do. I used to, in fact.

      After you've suffered enough of that, which unfortunately may take years, what you realize is that the joy you derive from doing the right thing, from loving and looking after your fellow human being, from all of those unsolicited and unexpected acts of kindness and understanding, those were the only things that really mattered. Those are the things that the world can't take away from you unless you permit it.

      There's something noble and uplifting about serving your fellow human being with no thought of reward or even basic gratitude. There's something "overcoming" about having patience for the next slight, the next sling and arrow that some ignorant individual may hurl your way.

      The most amazing thing of all is when people who need a good example gravitate quite naturally into your life without your input or your planning. Then you find that there are many wounded spirits in this world who don't understand the damage that they do. Then you find that a few of them are ready for something better and all they need is someone to represent for them what that means, not by putting on an act, but by being who you really are.

      For me, THAT is life. Not the cynical picture that you portray. Gratification is empty and hollow and meaningless by comparison. It is attractive only to those who know nothing better, friend.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  2. Work from home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Or people that work from home and wouldn't otherwise see the light of day!

  3. ...what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They needed a fucking study to see that ?

    1. Re:...what ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sure they do. The sort of people that do this type of study are also narcissists, and use bloody-fucking-obvious "research" to promote themselves, and make themselves seem important.

    2. Re:...what ? by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They needed a fucking study to see that ?

      If they said it without a study we'd have a bunch of "[citation please]" followed by sarcastic comments that a few anecdotes are meaningless, and how they happen know a bunch of humble self-assured people who use facebook a lot too.

      So yes, they needed a fucking study. Its how we separate truth from truthiness. Science at work. Just because it confirms what most people might beleive is true doesn't make it unworthy of study. Sometimes looking into things that most people believe is true has surprising results.

    3. Re:...what ? by chaboud · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But we're willing to take a priori definitions of narcissists and people with low self-esteem?

      We're way into the deep end of the soft-science pool here, and it's not a big pull-back reveal that narcissists and those with low self-esteem seek out essentially risk-free forms of socialization and fora for self-aggrandizement.

      Worse still, the study was conducted on a set of just 100 students, which hardly seems like a statistically sound sample unless the biases are off the charts. Additionally, we couldn't say from a survey like this if the behaviors were correlative or causal. To her credit, the author doesn't appear to make such a leap.

      Still, sampling bias, causation, statistical significance, and control all seem to interfere with the possible validity of any significant conclusions that we could draw, even the obvious ones. It's an undergraduate student, though. She's could be just passive-aggressive and looking to rip on her dorm-mates behind the veil of science.

      I mean, why not?

    4. Re:...what ? by KingAlanI · · Score: 2, Insightful

      exactly - "it's obvious" snarkiness seems to be an example of attitudes from people confused about the nature of science
      Either that, or they know science and mark stuff like this as a lower priority considering limited research resources.
      There is some value in the details of what seems obvious, even if the basic premise holds

      --
      I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
  4. Among others... by divisionbyzero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No doubt they do. And they are probably among millions of others who go there to keep connected with friends that they wouldn't otherwise be able to. Vain people look in mirrors a lot. Does that mean only people who are vain own mirrors? What a ridiculous study.

    1. Re:Among others... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      RTFA. "The study doesn't go so far as to say that all heavy users of Facebook are narcissists or people with very low self-esteem"

      Yeah, I know, this is slashdot and knee-jerk reactions deliver guaranteed karma.

  5. OTOH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One could just as easily say the same about people who publish "studies."

  6. Bullshit Trifecta by oldhack · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Bullshit study by a bullshit outfit ("Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking") on a bullshit subject.

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    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  7. Doesn't that describe... by Thelasko · · Score: 2, Insightful

    everyone?

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    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  8. Right by blai · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Extroverts get facebook accounts to vent their feelings...
    Introverts get facebook to promote self-esteem...

    Just conclude that social networking is favoured by social organisms

    --
    In soviet Russia, God creates you!
  9. Facebook Use Case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm still trying to figure out the use case for Facebook for me, a geek, with his own web site. I already don't update my own site enough and I really just don't care what people from high school are doing. I've moved on in life and don't have a great need for a popularity contest. The people I want to maintain contact with I still do. What's the use case? I still feel like facebook is a fad, in the same vein of AOL of the 90's and myspace from whenever that was popular.

  10. What's that make twitter? by scorp1us · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously.

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    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
  11. Seems fitting. by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't Mark Zuckerberg known to be a complete jerk and a narcissist?

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    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  12. And in other news.... by sykobabul · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ... scientists have discovered that water is wet, air is usually breathable and the sun is hot. :P

  13. Re:Bad summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I read "Heaviest" as in, "weighing the most".

    I too feel this is a more appropriate title.

  14. Sample Size by Shin+Dig · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Note, this study had a sample size of 100 college students, possibly self selected (selection criteria wasn't readily presented). It's really dubious to make a generalization on that.

    --
    There is no silver bullet. Plus, werewolves make better neighbors than zombies or vampires anyway.
  15. Kettle calls Pot black by Infonaut · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I find it humorous that so many Slashdotters bag on Facebook users, who are apparently self-absorbed. Tell me you don't give a rat's ass how your Slashdot comments are moderated. Tell me you've never looked to see how many people are interested in reading your comments. I know there will always be those who profess to be completely disinterested in their social standing in Slashdot, but methinks the number who actually don't give a damn is smaller than the number who make that claim.

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  16. Re:Flawed study is flawed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    Most studies involve students because researches work at universities.

    These same studies also cite a study which justifies the use of students for studies.

    I would cite it, but you clearly have not done any research, so neither will I.