Just been reading a report by Christopher Carpenter, the 30-year old
assistant professor of communication at Western Illinois University.
Carpenter is getting worldwide news coverage for his study of the ‘dark
side’. He is not researching the benefits of watching Star Wars Episode
IV: A New Hope, why the force was strong with Luke nor is he researching
why Darth Vader turned. Instead, he is researching the timely subject
of Facebook.
Carpenter’s study, “Narcissism on Facebook: Self-promotional and
Anti-social Behaviour,” is published in the journal Personality and
Individual Differences.
Narcissism is defined in this study as “a pervasive pattern of
grandiosity, need for admiration and an exaggerated sense of
self-importance,” Carpenter said.
For the average narcissist, Facebook “offers a gateway for hundreds
of shallow relationships and emotionally detached communication.” More
importantly, for this study, social networking in general allows the
user a great deal of control over how he or she is presented to and
perceived by peers and other users, he added. Interesting.
The narcissistic personality inventory (NPI) survey sample included
292 individuals, which measured self-promoting Facebook behaviours, such
as posting status updates, photos of oneself and updating profile
information; and several anti-social behaviours, including seeking
social support more than providing it, getting angry when others do not
comment on status updates and retaliating against negative comments.
Carpenter’s research methods class emailed people they knew and asked
them to complete the survey. Approximately 75 percent of respondents
were college students, he said.
He hypothesized the grandiose exhibitionism would predict the
self-promoting behaviours. This includes vanity, superiority,
self-absorption and exhibitionistic tendencies. The
entitlement/exploitativeness was hypothesized to predict the anti-social
behaviours. This includes a sense of deserving respect and a
willingness to manipulate and take advantage of others, Carpenter
explains.
Results showed grandiose exhibitionism correlated with
self-promotion. Entitlement/exploitativeness correlated with anti-social
behaviours on Facebook. Self-esteem was unrelated to self-promotion
behaviours and it was negatively associated with some anti-social
behaviours (i.e. self-esteem was related to less of these anti-social
behaviours).
It is very interesting to see how people use facebook to portray a
particular image – as Carpenter says, self-promotion. I know of a couple
who are going through a very difficult patch in their marriage, to a
point where she doesn’t know whether she can continue. He feels bullied
into making decisions. Their concern is the small child they have
together. With another on the way. But on facebook, all looks as bright,
glorious and happy as ever. Is Facebook becoming like Second Life – a
chance to promote yourself in a way that you desire to be portrayed? Is
it that shot at showing to the world, the type of life you ‘have’ that
was always out of your reach? It is promoting that individualistic,
humanistic worldview where me, myself and I are number one. This is no
doubt one of the root causes of the entitlement that Carpenter speaks
about, which results, often in anti-social behaviour.
If Facebook is to be a place where people go to repair their damaged
ego and seek social support, it is vitally important to discover the
potentially negative communication one might find on Facebook and the
kinds of people likely to engage in them. Ideally, people will engage in
pro-social Facebooking rather than anti-social me-booking.
“Students who use technology for self-promotion tend to be more
narcissistic than those who simply use technology to connect to others”.
That’s according to a research paper by Flagler College psychology
professor Meghan M. Saculla and Western Kentucky University psychology
professor W. Pitt Derryberry, who set out to discover whether there was a
correlation between moral judgment development, narcissism, and
technology use.
According to this study, males reported that they are more likely
than females to use Facebook as “a vehicle for popularity, to use cell
phones as a means of creating a medial identity, to isolate themselves
with these technological devices, and to use Facebook and cell phones
for exhibitionistic display”. Though females tend to use Electronic
Media and Communication Devices (EMCDs) more often than males, ‘the
attitudes of males regarding their EMCD usage appear to be more
detrimental for social functioning’.
“In general, the ‘dark side’ of Facebook requires more research in
order to better understand Facebook’s socially beneficial and harmful
aspects in order to enhance the former and curtail the latter,” added
Carpenter. Agreed that there is alot more research to be done in this
field, particularly as our world becomes smaller, and the use of
technology becomes wider and more intense.
I’m going to watch Star Wars now. It’s better for me than spending
time being sucked into the dark side of Facebook, where I admit, I do
venture on occasion.
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