It’s all about me even if it appears to be about you

Narcissism and Facebook self-promotion through personal visual posting and corporate content sharing

Authors

  • Todd Andrew Holmes California State University Northridge

Keywords:

narcissism, social network sites, social media, photo sharing, video sharing, self-presentation, self-promotion, exhibitionism, corporate content, Facebook

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of narcissism and its three facets, Grandiose Exhibitionism (GE), Leadership/Authority (LA), and Entitlement/Exploitativeness (EE), on the frequency of personal photo and video posting and corporate sharing behaviors on Facebook. In addition, status update frequency was used as a covariate while gender and age were considered as moderators of these relationships. A total of 343 respondents completed an online survey which assessed their narcissism levels and their Facebook usage behaviors. Results demonstrated that after accounting for status update frequency, narcissism predicted the posting of photos and videos of just oneself, oneself with family and friends, and oneself surrounded by natural scenery. GE was the strongest predictor of the posting of photos/videos of oneself with friends while EE most strongly predicted the posting of photos/videos of oneself, oneself with family, and oneself with friends. Younger participants were found to be more impacted by LA when posting photos/videos of oneself with family and friends while older subjects were more influenced by GE when sharing content from a company or organization. Future research should extend the study by employing a multigenerational sample and further examining the effects of narcissism and its components on the posting of personal photos/videos and sharing of corporate content.

Author Biography

Todd Andrew Holmes, California State University Northridge

Dr. Holmes is Assistant Professor of Entertainment Media Management in the Department of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University Northridge.

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Published

2022-12-30

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 2 (2022): The Journal of Social Media in Society

Section

Articles

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