The proliferation of social media in day-to-day life has raised numerous questions about how individuals present themselves in these arenas. The present study examined the associations of narcissism and self-esteem with the posting of self-photographs ("selfies") on a popular photo sharing social networking site (i.e., Instagram). Participants were 128 undergraduate students (19 males, 109 females) ranging in age from 18 to 43 (M ϭ 20.46, SD ϭ 3.59). Selfies were coded according to their frequency relative to participants' nonselfie posts and their apparent themes (i.e., physical appearance, activity/event/location, affiliation with others, collage, other/undifferentiated). The hypothesized relations of narcissism and self-esteem with the posting of selfies independent of theme were not significant. However, there was a significant relation between some dimensions of narcissism and specific categories of selfies (e.g., vulnerable narcissism with physical appearance selfies). The limitations of the present study, particularly in terms of sampling and other issues that may influence online presentations, as well as the implications for future research on social media photographic displays are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.