Social Media Psychology: Is Facebook Turning Kids Into Unintelligent Narcissists?

Given its significant, transformative impact on the way children and teens socialize, it was only a matter of time before the psychological and intellectual consequences of Facebook started to emerge.

The latest of such measured consequences, unveiled at the 119^thAnnual Convention of the American Psychological Association, are again not universally positive.

In a presentation entitled "Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids," Larry D. Rosen, PhD revealed that the use of Facebook and other social networking has been linked to psychological disorders in teens and young adults.

"Teens who use Facebook more often show more narcissistic tendencies while young adults who have a strong Facebook presence show more signs of other psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies," confirmed the findings, which are highlighted in a press release from the APA. The presentation also noted that "daily overuse of media and technology" makes all children prone to "anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders."

As would be expected, Facebook’s impact on productivity is harmful to GPA. "Studies found that middle school, high school and college students who checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period achieved lower grades."

Changing the way we interact comes with a cost

That platforms like Facebook effectively serve as forums for complete social interaction, rather than as mere communications tools, undoubtedly fuels the psychological impact.

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Whereas those youths who primarily communicated via instant-messaging a decade or so ago were only really subjecting themselves to the generic limitations of faceless interaction, those using Facebook are often subscribing to a much deeper "community" that serves to recreate the very social scenarios from which one-on-one conversation (especially via technology) often provided protection.

The difference, and likely a trigger in amplifying the positive and negative psychological consequences of social networking, is the fact that sites like Facebook quantify and trumpet a social hierarchy.

Remember the "everyone’s doing it" myth? "Mom, let me go to the party without parent supervision—everyone’s going…Dad, everyone says my $50 basketball shoes are ugly. Everyone likes Roger’s $300 basketball shoes. Buy me a pair!" Astute parents always knew to call out their children for using "everyone" as a synonym for three or four people.

Children, meanwhile, could often use the same logic to combat feelings of insecurity or social inadequacy. Since most unfavorable social situations only tangibly exist between a small group of people, children could convince themselves that an "undesirable" social standing was only perceived as such by a select few. "Jimmy not inviting me to his awesome Homecoming party was because he doesn’t like me, rather than because I’m not cool."

"Everyone" could, however, effectively mean what it says in the world of social media.

The Facebook social hierarchy is more concrete, thereby amplifying the inflated or deflated self-worth individuals gain from social interaction. Though never really in the eye of the beholder, popularity, at least because it lacked hard data, could be a bit less definitive in "real-life." On Facebook, there are measurable friends lists and status/photo comments to tell everyone how many friends you have and how many of these people are actively interested in what you do.

Those more noticeably on the social radar receive ample "likes" for their status updates, while those perceived as more physically attractive or "dateable" now have public photo albums for showing off themselves and their significant others. Social butterflies can post photos and status updates from the parties and gatherings that lesser-known children and teens are not attending.

Even though some of these measurements, such as the "friends" metric, are somewhat silly (since Facebook relationships do not always imply "real" relationships), they all work together to quantify popularity.

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This "measurable" form of socializing certainly subjects children to negative sociological and psychological consequences. By formalizing,if notcelebrating, a social hierarchy, it can make some feel narcissistic and others feel unloved. It can put friendships to the test by displaying how "one-on-one" relationships between two people change when the public is watching.

Of course, insofar as social media’s measures of societal standing and forms of communication (likes, photo comments, re-Tweets, etc.) do not always translate to in-person communities, it can also make even the most successful Facebook users increasingly anti-social or increasingly inept at communication.

But let’s not dismiss the benefits

But the ramifications are not all bad. According to the APA presentation, "young adults who spend more time on Facebook are better at showing "virtual empathy" to their online friends," while online social network can help "introverted adolescents" comfortably develop their social skills.

These positive impacts can also be traced to the "social forum" of networks like Facebook. Whereas those dealing with family deaths, illness, breakups or other propellants of anguish previously had a limited universe for communicating their feelings, Facebook can provide them hundreds or even thousands of shoulders on which to lean. Social networks give children, teens and young adults more definitive insight into why their peers act in a certain way, and that spurs an improved ability to empathize and refrain from snap judgments.

While the nature of Facebook can underscore distinctions between members of a social hierarchy—perhaps creating a "everyone can now see that I’m cool, funny and attractive while you’re dorky, boring and ugly" environment—it can also serve as a unifier between "social classes" that would not otherwise interact.

Facebook profiles, statuses and photos, for instance, can put the quirky, reserved "theater girl" on the radar of the star quarterback in a way not possible in most real-world high school environments.

And let’s not ignore the reverse scenario—that an introverted "social rebel" learns, via Facebook, that members of his school’s glitterati are deep and intelligent rather than shallow and vapid, and therefore less vehemently opposes the social structure.

As with any previous departure from face-to-face communication, social media is inevitably going to produce skepticism about its impact on human interaction. And as with anything that counters the after-school-special idea that popularity is a meaningless construct, there are going to be some negative mental consequences.

But if children—and their parents—embrace the social benefits of networks like Facebook and put the potential harms in context, they can persistently experience the value of such a revolutionary communication leap without worrying about ruining their lives.