Narcissism + Facebook

Facebook Profiles Can Be Used To Detect Narcissism

[Very interesting.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080922135231.htm ]


ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2008) — A new University of Georgia study suggests that online social networking sites such as Facebook might be useful tools for detecting whether someone is a narcissist.

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“We found that people who are narcissistic use Facebook in a self-promoting way that can be identified by others,” said lead author Laura Buffardi, a doctoral student in psychology who co-authored the study with associate professor W. Keith Campbell.

The researchers, whose results appear in the October issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, gave personality questionnaires to nearly 130 Facebook users, analyzed the content of the pages and had untrained strangers view the pages and rate their impression of the owner’s narcissism.

The researchers found that the number of Facebook friends and wallposts that individuals have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism. Buffardi said this is consistent with how narcissists behave in the real-world, with numerous yet shallow relationships. Narcissists are also more likely to choose glamorous, self-promoting pictures for their main profile photos, she said, while others are more likely to use snapshots.

Untrained observers were able to detect narcissism, too. The researchers found that the observers used three characteristics – quantity of social interaction, attractiveness of the individual and the degree of self promotion in the main photo – to form an impression of the individual’s personality. “People aren’t perfect in their assessments,” Buffardi said, “but our results show they’re somewhat accurate in their judgments.”

Narcissism is a trait of particular interest, Campbell said, because it hampers the ability form healthy, long-term relationships. “Narcissists might initially be seen as charming, but they end up using people for their own advantage,” Campbell said. “They hurt the people around them and they hurt themselves in the long run.”
The tremendous growth of social networking sites – Facebook now has 100 million users, for example – has led psychologists to explore how personality traits are expressed online. Buffardi and Campbell chose Facebook because it’s the most popular networking site among college students and because it has a fixed format that makes it easier for researchers to compare user pages.

Some researchers in the past have found that personal Web pages are more popular among narcissists, but Campbell said there’s no evidence that Facebook users are more narcissistic than others.

“Nearly all of our students use Facebook, and it seems to be a normal part of people’s social interactions,” Campbell said. “It just turns out that narcissists are using Facebook the same way they use their other relationships – for self promotion with an emphasis on quantity of over quality.”

Still, he points out that because narcissists tend to have more contacts on Facebook, any given Facebook user is likely to have an online friend population with a higher proportion of narcissists than in the real world. Right now it’s too early to predict if or how the norms of online self-promotion will change, Campbell said, since the study of social networking sites is still in its infancy.

“We’ve undergone a social change in the last four or five years and now almost every student manages their relationships through Facebook – something that few older people do,” Campbell said. “It’s a completely new social world that we’re just beginning to understand.”

Growgaine

Grass is a funny thing. It grows well where it is most unwelcome, such as among roses and other flowers, between stones in a patio, in a vegetable garden, in the lawn of someone who hasn't fertilized or groomed this lawn since 1998. It grows less enthusiastically where it is most wanted.

I have an elderly lawn, so this fact along with a decade of stronger drought may explain the larger sparse or flat-out bare spots. I only know that my lawn and I have an uneasy relationship. I dream of rippling blue-green barefoot turf of Kentucky Blue Grass, with the obligatory future Triple Crown winners galloping and snorting in the distance. Okay, scratch the horses; my lawn is not that big and I can't afford to keep horses. (Perhaps a chicken or two.) My lawn is also not The Right Color.

I don't live in Kentucky, perhaps that's the problem.This is what happens when people are brainwashed into growing a grass that doesn't like high, dry climates where water is scarce and expensive. (And by the way, to all the developers who keep building houses despite facts and common sense about water, and all the fine city planning officials who are either too greedy or comatose to stop them, a big THANK YOU. But don't get me started.)

My revelation for the day is this: I need to invent a product like Rogaine for grass. I've tested numerous re-seed and plant-anywhere-and-grow grass repair products, and nothing works for long. However, a nice Rogaine-like product sprayed all over the lawns, with a light massage afterward should yield results.

It's either Growgraine, or I cultivate half the lawn to a height of 2 feet and comb it over the bald spots. (This might trump everything else.)

Am I Dreaming?

Pinch me. I made it into, through, and out of Wal-Mart without incident. !   There was no rudeness. In fact, several people smiled at me and I smiled at them, feeling tension ease from my back.

No 30-something mothers  who hate their lives so much that they delightedly roll right over you if you don't move quickly enough.

No parades of 5-7 people with one or two baskets taking up residence (and possibly enjoying a family reunion or a 25th wedding anniversary) in the middle of an aisle.

No unruly children running full tilt  while a senior citizen has to hit the brakes suddenly and grab their dentures as they fly out.

No screaming or arguing.

No incidents of an unconscious citizen on a cell phone walking in an 8-foot bubble that will cause you to spontaneously combust if you get too close while reaching for tomato soup. (A neighbor of mine went that way, poor bastard.)

The cashier was friendly and efficient. I expected pretty balloons to float down from the ceiling while daffodils sprang up along all the aisles and minstrels played my favorite Brazilian guitar music ... while we all hugged one another in the spirit of goodwill and promised to keep in touch.

When I got out to the parking lot, no one had dented or scraped my car.

A small tear slides down my face. I had to call a friend and ask him to confirm that I'm awake. Perhaps it is all a dream, after all. I don't care, it was a good dream.