Parents whose daughters are obsessed with Facebook and other online social networking sites may want to take a closer look at their daughter's self-esteem. College students who constantly update their Facebook pages and who publish "self-promoting" pictures of themselves on their profiles suffer from narcissism or low self-esteem, according to a new study from York University.
- Soraya Mehdizadeh studied the online habits and personalities of 100 York students who used the social network website, Facebook.
- Those who engaged in self-promotion by posting pictures of themselves in glamorous settings or ones that were enhanced by computer software and those who bragged about themselves in their "about me" sections were more likely to be either narcissistic or insecure.
"They are updating their status every five minutes and the photos they post are carefully construed," she said. "The question is, are these really accurate representations of the individual or are they merely a projection of who the individual wants to be?"
This study appears in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.
Labels: self-esteem, online, social networking
Posted By: Jane St. Clair
