Are people who still post on Facebook timeline narcissistic? Are there less and less people using Facebook?
I started using "The" facebook back in 2003. It got real big with my group of friends 2008-2010. People were posting like crazy. Later on I noticed less and less updates on the timeline. Reading their posts was like having to sit through a bad commercial. I stopped logging in, and eventually I deactivated my account for two years. Today I sign back on, and it's a ghost town. I can scroll down a week's worth of timeline post in a couple minutes. No one is posting on it, except the same few annoying friends. What is wrong with these people? Why do the post so much? It's more than boredom. Somethings wrong with them. Is it safe to say they are narcissistic? Don't they realize they're talking only among there few narcissistic friends?
Narcissism: Are Facebook and Twitter magnets for narcissists?
This is a hard question to answer. Let's look at relevant studies in that field. I haven't followed lately but I've done a research in the field of Internet Psychology last year which obliged me to read so many papers related to your question. Indeed there is a positive correlation between Facebook(Or SNS in general) and Narcissism.For example in 2009, Ryan and al. concluded that:Facebook users tend to be more extraverted and narcissistic, but less conscientious and socially lonely, than nonusers. But the question which I ask myself is: Do SNSites attract narcissists or they turn their users into narcissists? I think a deep research is necessary by qualified people but my personal observation is that both are true.I base my argument on a study done in 2012 by Nadkan and al. Their research question was "Why do people use Facebook?". And they concluded that there are two reasons:1. The need for self-representation.2. The need to belong.The first reason explains well how Facebook will tend to attract people who were already narcissists.[Compare with this study ]. Narcissists just couldn't wait for such a medium where they could show everybody that they are the center of the Universe.I also think that the second reason backs up my argument that Facebook does also change its users into narcissists. Now, this will be hard to test because any Facebook/Twitter user(I happen to be one as well) will give you some random excuses why s/he uses it but fail to make a good argument against what is being proposed.[Yes, Facebook may help you contact your old friends but this does not mean that it can't have attracted you because you were a narcissist or at least turned you into one].As I argued in my post A Month Off Facebook this may be because people face cognitive dissonance which then makes them deny the effect Facebook has had on them and try to justify it instead.Also I don't buy into the idea that they only affect adolescents. Yes, adolescents are more concerned by cheap accomplishments and things which are not actually accomplishments(such as beauty,....) but grownups do also show their narcissistic behaviors in their own ways.But again I think as Lisa Galarneau said, we are all some sorts of narcissists after all.Disclaimer: I'm no expert in Psychology, I just happen to speak it as my second language.
On Facebook, do people show their true selves?
No and yes.No: I think social media accounts tend to show the great parts of someone’s life, and it's probably because most people only want their best parts to be seen. There's probably a percentage of people who display perfect pictures, because they actually have perfect lives, but for the most part.. I believe that in order to show our true selves, we would have to show our good, bad, and ugly.Yes: I've seen people in the midst of a break up ranting or posting content that everyone just knows is directed to their partner. I've seen political ideals, some of which I will never agree with, nor condone. I have seen racist remarks, and hateful stuff. There are posts of that nature which I think is one way people reveal a little bit of their true selves.But even for those who put their whole lives on display on Facebook through pictures and constant status updates, I think most people’s true selves are never really revealed.