Just Check That Selfie, Your Narcissism Might Be Showing

The relationship between social media use and narcissism

If the story of Narcissus were a modern tale, he wouldn’t be staring at his reflection in the river. More likely, he’d be gazing lovingly into his iPhone front camera. And, as it turns out, probably taking many a selfie along the way.

If you’re like me and you’re not opposed to the occasional selfie, perhaps it’s time we take a good hard look at ourselves…

Narcissism and Social Media

Narcissism has moved into social consciousness a lot more in recent years. Perhaps that’s because it appears to be on the rise – one study, for example, showed mean narcissism scores have increased by about 30% from 1979 to 2006. There are arguments that culturally, we’ve facilitated, accepted, and perhaps even celebrated narcissism, through the birth of social media.

I’ve found a wave of research exploring the links between narcissistic tendencies and technology. And it’s not pretty. Frankly, I feel a bit attacked.

One 2020 study explored narcissism in relation to envy and self-promotion for travellers. You know those folks who post 8 million photos of their trips on social media? Yes, those ones, where each post includes their smiling or pretend-I-just-got-caught-laughing-candidly face reminding you that they are, indeed, at this place, having a grand old time.

(No hate, I love a good pretend-candid.)

This study found that “narcissism and envy increase the likelihood of travellers posting selfies both directly, and through self-promotion as a mediator.” They also discovered that the relationship might be reciprocal, as narcissism and envy levels increased with social media usage.

And travel selfies are a particularly fascinating sub-genre of selfie because they often replace the tourist attraction – the thing you’re supposed to be capturing – with the poster’s face. Some research even ascribed a term to this, the “attraction-shading effect”, where people post an “attraction”, but it’s shifted to the side of the photo or doesn’t feature at all. The spotlight belongs to the poster (Sorry Michelangelo’s David).

(So, now that this is a thing, let us all take a moment to scour Facebook and delete all the travel pics where our narcissism is showing…)

Another 2020 paper investigated the selfie connection to gender, narcissism and age. It found the strongest predictors of selfie-taking were grandiose and exhibitionistic aspects of narcissism, both for men and women. This is not pure narcissism in the traditional sense. Rather, grandiose/exhibitionism is one facet of narcissism “characterised by exhibitionism, vanity, self-love, and a sense of superiority.” Nice.

And probably pretty fitting, considering selfies are a method to show yourself to the world.

In that study, they also asked participants open questions about why they post selfies to social media. Although answers ranged from documenting memories to self-esteem boosting, sharing and connecting or sharing for work (like with sponsored posts), narcissistic reasons were the most frequently cited. The example given is “I think I am attractive and I have no problem sharing that”.

Don’t know about you, but I’m going to conveniently forget this study the next time I go to take a selfie.

Beyond selfie-posting, narcissism and social media use have a relationship more generally. A study from 2020 found narcissistic individuals are more at risk of Facebook addiction. The researchers reason this may be because Facebook offers the opportunity to acquire more attention and admiration than in the non-virtual world. People can carefully curate what they want to post about, show pictures of themselves to large groups of people, and present a personal brand to their liking.

I’d imagine the element of control over one’s virtual presence would be appealing to the textbook narcissist.

Are we creating a narcissistic society?

Although the research is interesting, it prompts concern. I can’t help but think that based on the evidence, narcissism will continue to rise.

If, as some have suggested, there may be a circular effect; where posting to social media prompts more narcissistic behaviours or thinking, and narcissism triggers an urge to post to social media, and the two continue to reinforce each other, it seems plausible. In the worst case, it may even increase exponentially, as kids are hopping onto social media earlier and earlier now.

If it’s not merely the case that narcissists have found convenient methods to acquire adoration from social media, but also that social media exposes us to content and systems prompting more narcissistic tendencies, we may be in a bit of trouble. The research could reflect a scary warning that we’re building a narcissism-embracing culture; one that plants the seed of grandiosity in children’s minds from the moment they unlock their tablets.

For all the amazing benefits we gain from social media, it seems society has made a trade-off. And that’s fine. Such is the nature of progress: We trade new things for existing things. And the internet is worth trading a lot of things for.

Except, we still don’t quite know what that trade-off comprises; social media’s real implications probably won’t be made clear for years to come. Fingers crossed it won’t be too bad, and we’ll be able to minimise any potential long-term harm that could arise.

Narcissists phub more

Selfies and social media use aren’t the only way these mean researchers are exposing narcissistic tendencies in people. There are other phone-related behaviours connected, too.

Have you heard of phubbing? It’s short for ‘phone snubbing’, a new term created to reflect when you’re sitting in person with someone, and they keep shifting their attention to their phone instead of interacting with you.

2020 research found that “higher levels of vulnerable narcissism were associated with more phubbing”.

(Vulnerable narcissism is a strain of the personality disorder where the person demonstrates narcissistic traits in a more covert, introverted way. They still display all the things narcissists are known for – entitlement, seeking out admiration and external validation and so on, but in a less obvious fashion.)

Which, I suppose, makes sense when you think about it. Phubbing arguably demonstrates entitlement and a sense of superiority to who you’re with because your time is more valuable than theirs. It might shift attention from the speaker in the group to you, when they ask if you’re listening or ask you to pay attention, and this would then allow the narcissist to hold control of the conversation. I can see how the two ideas might be connected.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it. It looks like narcissists take more selfies, post more selfies, are more susceptible to Facebook addiction. Also, some might be more likely to phub you. It also seems safe to presume that social media probably reinforces some of these patterns of behaviour, and encourages them to an extent.

Hopefully, as the research continues, we’ll gain the knowledge to implement meaningful and effective strategies, particularly for adolescents who are just beginning their virtual identity journeys. Maybe we’ll still end up with social media rehabs in 50 years to counteract the habits and behaviours we’ve acquired from it. Who knows? In the meantime, I don’t know about you, but this has added an extra filter to how I perceive selfies…