It’s All about Me (or Us): Facebook Post Frequency & Focus as Related to Narcissism

Research on associations between narcissism and social media use has produced mixed results. This is, we assert, due to the variety of ways in which social media use has been measured. We use a new measure of social media posting frequency as well as a content analysis of users’ (N = 380) Facebook status updates that distinguishes between messages that focus attention exclusively on the user and messages that include other users at the center of attention. We find a positive association between narcissism and posting frequency as well as a negative association between narcissism and posting other-focused messages. This is the first study to find evidence of a link between narcissism and the focus of social media posts, furthering understanding of the psychological underpinnings of various types of online self-expression.