Grandiose Narcissism And Social Media Usage: An Exploratory Study Using The Narcissist Personality Inventory

Abstract

21^st century is named as a century of technological revolution, especially in the field of internet and social media. Social media has become an integral part of our lives. Where the usage of social media has increased, the Narcissistic behavior among people has also increased. People have become more self-centered and victim of self-love and self-praise. Social network sites have a strong impact on self-esteem of users. The present research is aimed to study the relationship between social media usage and narcissistic behaviors of social media users. Narcissist Personality Inventory (NPI-16) was used to measure the Grandiose Narcissist traits among social media users. The results show that social media platforms are great facilitators for the people who have narcissistic behavior because they can pretend to be on social media whatever they want. The findings indicated that use of high and multiple social networking sites can lead to self-promotion and narcissist behavior. The findings of research suggest that social media is primarily a tool for self-promotion.