project

“Study” on Facebook Narcissism and Insecurity not REAL Research

Digital Citizen 6 Comments

A hot story has been circulating for a few days now regarding a study done by undergraduate student Soraya Mehdizadeh of York University about how more active users of Facebook are more narcissistic and insecure than the rest of us. Problem is there’s nothing good enough about it to be called either a “study” or “research”.

The media is also to blame. I’m not sure whether to call the editors who allowed it on their popular news sources “stupid” for running the story like it’s legitimate news, or “smart but immoral” for putting it out knowing stuff like that sells, even if there’s no substance to it.

The greatest shame, though, has to go to the “journal” of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking for publishing it as if it were worthy of being called “academic” quality (study PDF). York University should be just as disgraced for letting that pass its standard for “academic research”, push it for publication and then blabber about it as if they had some meaningful research on their hands.

An above average high school student could have done a better job on such a project! Soroya basically did a bad high school project, if you ask me.

Think of that as a challenge for you high schoolers out there looking for a good Science Fair or other project to do. It’s a project that should be fun and engaging if you’re a Facebook fan, and there should be at least a few of you out there who qualify. Then social network together to pool results and get a decent sample size… which Soroya never even came close. And fix some flaws critiqued here.

Here are a few tragic fatal flaws of that “study”.

Lack of sample size with just 100 subjects

For a site with 500 million users, all Soroya can show for it is 100 users? I know it was an undergraduate thesis, but people used to have to work for their thesis, you know? Also, in the electronic media for this day and age, you’d think she could get more than 100 people to do some tests! If you were going to target 100, call it a term project and leave it at that! Don’t go screaming you’ve got a study on your hands and seek attention.

Oh, wait. I think that’s narcissism!

Which professor let that be called research anyway??? Soroya did publicly admit the sample size was a weakness to the “study”, but that’s not a weakness. That doesn’t constitute a study in this case. If I did a study of 1, I could say the same thing. Of course, nobody would call it a study due to the sample size of just 1. So at how many do you call a study, and why? With that many users and statistically significant polls of merit needing around 1000 subjects, 100 subjects is still way too few to be enough data to call a study!

Soroya also had the audacity to talk about gender differences on a sample size of 50 or so people! Did she ever take statistics? And who vetted this to allow it???

All subjects were 18-25 years old

Since when did humans outside of 18-25 years old not qualify as “people”? You can’t draw a conclusion for “Facebook users” on this demographic alone. The media did that more than Soroya, but she implied it enough not to title the study “18-25 year old Facebook users” for a subject group. And were the 100 selected even representative of all 18-25 year olds? There must be literature to determine that “average” to compare to the test group narcissism and insecurity profile. Hey, maybe 18-25 year olds at York are just more narcissistic and insecure than the typical group and uses Facebook as a symptom of it!

You can make that call. 🙂

Causality… or lack thereof

So are more active Facebook users narcissistic and/or insecure? Or are narcissistic and/or insecure people use Facebook more actively? Does Soroya know the difference? In case she doesn’t, let me clarify. The first is what the media story and her so-called “study” suggests. So everyone who uses Facebook more actively are narcissistic and insecure. The second means only some of the people who use Facebook more actively are narcissistic and/or insecure, and that you can’t tell if they are by the level of their Facebook activity.

But that doesn’t sell or cause a stir or make anybody care as people could have told you that on their own instinct and be right. I’m not even sure if narcissistic and/or insecure people use Facebook a lot because you’d also have to look at the ones who don’t use Facebook and see what portion they make up, never mind those who don’t use it much.

Soroya’s pretentious “research” can’t prove any causality, but she comments on all kinds of causality.

If I had to bet on any connection between Facebook usage and narcissism and/or insecurity, though, I’d easily bet on the second reason. I’d bet narcissistic and/or insecure people use Facebook more actively, not that more active users are narcisstic.

Carefully constructed self-image???

Beyond the ridiculous conclusions drawn by Soroya on causality, she then dared to speculate on meanings of symptoms of narcissism and insecurity. For example, the more active users had carefully constructed images of themselves, to project their best features and hide their worst, or that their profile is nothing really like them. Um. Does Soroya even know anything about Facebook usage?

The active users are the ones who get caught for affairs, missing work, lying to their friends, or just plainly do other less than appropriate things. They’re the ones Facebook etiquette guides were written for, cause they’re so blind to what their actions says about them to know better!

Reasons for Facebook usage unaccounted for

Does Soroya have any idea if people in this subject use Facebook for the same reasons as other demographics by any division? I mean, seniors tend to flock to Facebook and social media to be better up to date and involved in the lives of their adolescent or older grandchildren. Is that narcissism or insecurity?

Or maybe it’s love and caring. But wait, that doesn’t sell.

Some musicians I know add friends like crazy not because they care, but because they can show potential promoters and labels a nice base of fan support. Is that narcissism or insecurity?

Or maybe it’s just good old fashioned business and public relations. But wait, that doesn’t sell, either.

Final thoughts

There are many more problems with Soroya’s “high school project”. I don’t need to bore you with more as I think I’ve discredited it enough to make it worthless. I’ll just throw in a few commentaries to conclude.

Who knew it was so easy to get 15 minutes of fame these days?

I wonder what Soroya thought of Canadians possibly being among narcissistic and insecure people in the world. We have 47.9%  of the population connected, a higher percentage than any nation with over 10 million people. We also have the 4th most users in the world (CTV, June 2, 2010), without anywhere near the 4th largest population in the world! Would she have said most of us use Facebook passively like we are on a lot of things? Sure we didn’t all sign up only to be passive, did we?

High school students reading this, or Parents of them, try the challenge I had for high school students at the beginning. Seriously!

And where did Soroya get accepted into medical school? I won’t fault the school in case she didn’t tell them about this work to get in. For the love of God, Allah and the Buddha, I hope Soroya never be allowed to do research until she learns some more about what research is about! Just stick to areas in Med School one only has to memorize things or use one’s hands or something that doesn’t require research type of critical thinking!

But to end positively, congratulations for raising awareness on the Facebook usage issue, Soroya. I just wouldn’t have used sensationalism in the name of research to get credibility and attention.

By the way, Soroya, how did you fare on your own test?

Good luck in Med School. Just don’t tell the media which one accepted you for your school’s sake!

 

 

Other Facebook issue posts on my site:

The Prejudices and Privacy Perils of Facebook Quizzes

How to Get Rid of Your Facebook Past

25 Things For Facebook You Can’t Steal My ID With

25 Things You Gave on Facebook to Help Get Your ID Stolen

Una Guía de Netiqueta Práctica para Facebook

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 8.0

Random Acts of Kindness Challenge: A Facebook 2.0 Picture Tagging Meme

Digital Citizen 1 Comment

Here’s a Facebook picture tagging meme that will allow you to make a difference in the world while having fun! It’s for the real people who live life in the real world, not Facebook addicts stuck in the virtual world.

The potential of social media like Facebook and the Web 2.0 is its ability to organize people. However, there’s a lot of doubt about it because of how people use it a lot for games like traditional themed Facebook tagging memes. Nobody gets up to do anything to make difference in the world with them, and might even annoy some people.

I had tried to evolve these Facebook picture tagging memes previously with versions like Should Try and Dare to Wear, where you have to do something to fulfill them rather than just tag someone to a picture. However, this Random Acts of Kindness challenge is even better because there is a true benefit with each action taken by someone. They are also practical, costing either just a little bit of money or time. Best of all, they’ll make you feel good about yourself, and someone else feel good about life and the world!

So are you up for the challenge to tag it on and recruit your friends to make the world a better place?

Here’s how to get this graphic for your Facebook contribution to a better world:

  • Click on the picture below to get it at full size.
  • Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
  • Upload it to your Facebook profile.
  • Tag your friends!
  • Click the Back button on your browser to return to this post.

Please click here for a complete list of over 100 Facebook picture tagging memes on this site with which you can use for fun with your friends.


You may wish to hand out or leave a card with your random act of kindness (click to enlage, save and print out), although it is not customary to do so.

  • Cover another rider’s fare. The next time you’re on the bus, find someone who doesn’t have a pass and offer to pay so they can save their ticket or change.
  • Run an errand for someone. You’ll probably need to know the person/s because there is some trust required here, but your time is more valuable than your money.
  • Leave quarters at a pay phone. You can leave it on top of the phone or tape it to a RAK card.
  • Make goodie basket for seniors home. Unless you know someone at the home, it’s probably best to just buy some things because for safety’s sake, they will be cautious to take gifts out of the blue from strangers. Such is the world in which we live.
  • Make or buy lunch for a homeless person. If you don’t want to create expectations, you might want to do this where you don’t walk frequently.
  • Plug a parking meter. If you can afford more than a few dollars, you can plug the whole block! It’s even funner if you pick a busy block and make a scene. 🙂
  • Refuse to pay for a task. We all do things that people give us money for from time to time. Refuse it the next time. Or volunteer one of your professional skills.
  • Leave an extra large tip. Remember, 15% is the standard tipping rate. Make it at least 25%, eh?
  • Show up to volunteer at a building project. This may not be easy to find, especially if you live in cold weather during winter, but often, there are a lot of simple labour jobs anyone showing up can do. Just ask and they’ll probably let you. They may keep you safe away from the action, but if it’s menial, do you think those paid to do it enjoy it any more than you would?
  • Buy someone lottery tickets. This is risky cause if they win, you could feel bad. But RAKs aren’t about that. Besides, how often do you get to look someone in the eye and say “Do you feel lucky today?”
  • Pick up litter on your block. You can do this all year round, not just when tagged on Facebook, and it has real value to everyone who goes through. Better yet, organize a small group to do this regularly.
  • Make baked goods for a shelter. Shelters don’t often get home made stuff, just things out of cans and so on. Baked goods would be a nice surprise treat for people if you deliver it directly, bringing ID if they don’t know you. I’ve heard baked goods are not liked by shelters because they don’t know their origins, freshness state and so on, and that’s true if they get it in a box. But if you come with a smile on your face, and ID if they want to check, I’m sure they’ll love you for it.

You can search “random acts of kindness” for other ideas, but what I found was that a lot of them were either impractical (visit a nursing home where they won’t likely let strangers in), may not satisfy someone (giving candies to kids whose Parents are trying to teach them discipline or prevent cavities), or are just expected out of good citizens (donate seat on bus to elderly).

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