The connection between Facebook and narcissism

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I think facebook has some narcissistic aspects to it. What do you think?

An example of this is the fact that we think that people are interested in our pictures, interests and in all kinds of details of our personal lives. I also think there is a hidden competition going on when it comes to the number of facebook friends one has.
The term friends is wrong ofcourse because having friends on facebook can't even be compared to having friends in real life.

thats a pretty close minded view of facebook.

am on facebook to communicate only with family and old support staff because am unable to communicate in any other form, there isnt one person on list that do not know well IRL.
am also on some of the groups there because theyre not as yet overrun with sock puppet accounts like wp and other forums are.

some people use facebook as a window into their ego but everyone else just uses it for another method of communication.

when i had a facebook account i never really thought that people would be interested in what i post. i just posted whatever i felt like. i also used the chat function as a substitute to texting back when i didn't have a phone.

all of my "friends" were people i did now IRL, but with very varying degrees of closeness.

Facebook is only a reflection of life in general.

Everyone is born narcissistic.
They get taught not to be that way throughout their lives... and yet all they ever achieve is PRETENDING not to be so... even to the point of deceiving themselves.

I don't necessarily think using Facebook is a form of narcissism. I think using social networking as a whole, and for me that includes using sites like WP, is an avenue for wanting and seeking attention and validation. Now the big problem is when people think of 'attention seeking' they think it's a bad thing, but it's a normal thing. I think we as a society, years back, would find attention, validation, acceptance, understanding, and compliments from the people around us. But in todays modern, fast pace world, the people around us, like first degree relatives and other relatives, neighbours etc, are the people that know us the least.

So we've found a modern day solution to compensate for our lack of real human connection which would ordinarily happen in the family environment. People need to know that others acknowledge them, and care for them. But since we've drifted apart emotionally in these modern times, we find this acknowledgment from strangers, as opposed to people we actually know.

In a way we've become an aspect of our own technology, giving people virtual hugs and kisses and our emotions limited to text and pixels. I don't think this is narcissistic at all, but rather a product of our lack of wanting to accept reality and possible escapism in modern society. Well, that's why i think the internet is so addictive.

I don't use FB but I don't equate using it with narcissism except when some thinks they are supper important because they have a million friends that they never ever chat with.

There may be narcissists using Facebook, but I don't believe that using Facebook makes a person a narcissist. Depends on what FB is used for. I guess if all a person does on FB is post "selfies" and details every aspect of every day of their life, that may be narcissist behavior.

My opinion is using FB is not a narcissistic activity. One could utilize FB as a mode of communication to interact with family and such. A narcissistic personality will be that way regardless of FB but the website does give them a way to flaunt it to the world.

I agree with that take on it.

As someone who grew up moving around a lot and married a foreigner, most of my family and friends are pretty far flung. It's easier to check in on facebook and see pictures of our nieces and hear family news, than it is to coordinate a skype call with all of the family 6 hours different from us in time.
Heck, even my family and friends on the west coast, being 2 hours? behind us here, when I've got free time to call them, they're still in bed, or they're eating dinner, whatever.

It's a good thing...

I started using FB and now I'm totally narcissistic.

I posted pictures of my cartoons and crafts on FB so other people can see them. Guess that makes me narcissistic like every other cartoonist and artist who displays their work in newspapers and museums and craft shows, except they get paid and I don't.

I use it as a communication tool, since it's hard to reach a lot of people I know any other way, though to be honest, I f*****g hate it. It strikes me as a place where people get advertising shoved down their throats, narcissists gather to post selfies, companies get people hooked on "freemium" games that they end up paying out the nose for, and where people post tons of annoying crap I don't care about. Not to mention, it's a gigantic data mining tool for advertisers, just like Google. If they cut the crap and just kept the messaging system, I'd like it a lot better.

Back on topic, a lot of narcissists use Facebook, but having an account doesn't automatically make you one.

Facebook can make one's narcissistic traits more apparent, but owning an account doesn't mean you're a narcissist in general. Much of it has to do with Facebook's features, which are specifically designed to share photos, statuses, and messages to many people at once. So it can feel like you're being inundated with posts from people you don't care about. Narcissists take excessive advantage of these features, as we've all seen, but the occasional upload or status update isn't more narcissistic than passing around pictures at a family reunion. Also, as others have mentioned, some users just use it to keep up with friends/acquaintances they wouldn't have contact with otherwise.