"Study Says Facebook Addicts Are Narcissistic, Have Low Self-Esteem"
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 September 8, 2010
A new study from York University has found that both narcissists and people with low self-esteem gravitate toward Facebook as a self-promotional tool and tend to be heavier users of the site.
Compelled to tell your 1000+ Facebook buddies every time you get hungry? Want the world to know you look like Megan Fox or Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Post a new Photoshopped picture of yourself every week?
You, my friend, are narcissistic and insecure.
Soraya Mehdizadeh's, York University study, recruited fellow university students and analyzed their Facebook postings under About Me, Status Updates, View Photos of Me, Main Photo and Notes.
The more prolific the Facebook activity, the lower they rated on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the higher in the Narcissism Personality Inventory.
"They're updating their status every five minutes. They're telling you what celebrity they look like. They're posting pictures of themselves in a bikini."
Men tended to be more self-promotional in About Me and Notes, she said. Women leaned toward using their Main Photo to boast.
The findings, published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, are limited by the narrow range of 18-25 year old Facebook users, but the results may be applied to users at large.
Mehdizadeh says that if these social web sites improve one's self esteem and sense of well being, they may have great implications in the lives of the socially anxious or depressed.
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