Emotional Uses of Facebook and Twitter: Its Relation With Empathy,Narcissism,and Self-Esteem in Adolescence

Abstract

Facebook and Twitter have change interpersonal relationships. Adolescents are the sector of the population who use most these networks. They use them in an emotional way, to express their emotions and to comment on those of others. Empathy, narcissism, and self-esteem may play an important role in the use of these networks. Using a sample of 503 Spanish adolescents (272 males, 231 females), this work studies the relationship between the Basic Empathy Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and emotional and empathic use of Facebook and Twitter. The results showed that those who use Facebook and Twitter have higher scores in empathy. It has been observed that certain ways of using these two social networks are associated with narcissism. Greater use of Facebook and Twitter is associated with lower self-esteem.

Keywords

Empathy narcissism self-esteem Facebook Twitter adolescence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ackerman

R. A.

Witt

E. A.

Donnellan

M. B.

Trzesniewski

K. H.

Robins

R. W.

Kashy

D. A.

(2011) What does the narcissistic personality inventory really measure? Assessment 18(1): 67–87. doi:10.1177/1073191110382845.

Ahmad

(2011) Social network sites and its popularity. International Journal of Research and Reviews in Computer Science 2(2): 522–526.

Allemand

Steiger

A. E.

Fend

H. A.

(2014) Empathy development in adolescence predicts social competencies in adulthood. Journal of Personality 83(2): 229–241. doi:10.1111/jopy.12098.

Apaolaza

Hartmann

Medina

Barrutia

J. M.

Echebarria

(2013) The relationship between socializing on the Spanish online networking site Tuenti and teenagers’ subjective wellbeing: The roles of self-esteem and loneliness. Computers in Human Behavior 29(4): 1282–1289.

Bergman

S. M.

Fearrington

M. E.

Davenport

S. W.

Bergman

J. Z.

(2011) Millennials, narcissism, and social networking: What narcissists do on social networking sites and why. Personality and Individual Differences 50(5): 706–711. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.12.022.

Błachnio

Przepiorka

Rudnicka

(2016) Narcissism and self-esteem as predictors of dimensions of Facebook use. Personality and Individual Differences 90: 296–301. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.018.

Brailovskaia

Bierhoff

(2016) Cross-cultural narcissism on Facebook: Relationship between selfpresentation, social interaction and the open and covert narcissism on a social networking site in Germany and Russia. Computers in Human Behavior 55: 251–257. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.018.

Brailovskaia

Margraf

(2016) Comparing Facebook users and Facebook non-users: Relationship between personality traits and mental health variables – An exploratory study. PLoS One 11(12): e0166999. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166999.

Brewer

Kerslake

(2015) Cyberbullying, self-esteem, empathy and loneliness. Computers in Human Behavior 48: 255–260. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.073.

10.

Buccafurri

Lax

Nicolazzo

Nocera

(2015) Comparing Twitter and Facebook user behavior: Privacy and other aspects. Computers in Human Behavior 52: 87–95. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.045.

11.

Buffardi

L. E.

Campbell

W. K.

(2008) Narcissism and social networking Web sites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34(10): 1303–1314. doi:10.1177/0146167208320061.

12.

Carpenter

C. J.

(2012) Narcissism on Facebook: Self-promotional and anti-social behavior. Personality and Individual Differences 52: 482–486. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.11.011.

13.

Carrier

L. M.

Spradlin

Brunce

J. P.

Rosen

L. D.

(2015) Virtual empathy: Positive and negative impacts of going online upon empathy in young adults. Computers in Human Behavior 52: 39–48. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.026.

14.

Cohen

Strayer

(1996) Empathy in conduct-disordered and comparison youth. Developmental Psychology 32(6): 988–998. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.32.6.988.

15.

Davenport

S. W.

Bergman

S. M.

Bergman

J. Z.

Fearrington

M. E.

(2014) Twitter versus Facebook: Exploring the role of narcissism in the motives and usage of different social media platforms. Computers in Human Behavior 32: 212–220. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.12.011.

16.

De Vries

D. A.

Kühne

(2015) Facebook and self-perception: Individual susceptibility to negative social comparison. Personality and Individual Differences 86: 217–221.

17.

Elosua

Zumbo

(2008) Coeficientes de fiabilidad para escalas de respuesta categórica ordenada [Reliability coefficients for ordinal response scales]. Psicothema 20(4): 896–901.

18.

Eşkisu

Hoşoğlu

Rasmussen

(2017) An investigation of the relationship between Facebook usage, big five, self-esteem and narcissism. Computers in Human Behavior 69: 294–301.

19.

Fox

Rooney

M. C.

(2015) The Dark Triad and trait self-objectification as predictors of men’s use and self-presentation behaviors on social networking sites. Personality and Individual Differences 76: 161–165. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.017.

20.

García Garduño

J. M.

Cortés Sotres

J. F.

(1998) La medición empírica del narcisismo [The measurement of Narcissistic Personality]. Psicothema 10(3): 725–735.

21.

Gardermann

A. M.

Guhn

Zumbo

B. D.

(2012) Estimating ordinal reliability for Likert-type and ordinal item response data: A conceptual, empirical, and practical guide. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation 17(3): 13.

22.

Gentile

Twenge

J. M.

Freeman

E. C.

Campbell

(2012) The effect of social networking websites on positive self-views: An experimental investigation. Computers in Human Behavior 28: 1929–1933. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.05.012.

23.

Heidemann

Klier

Probst

(2012) Online social networks: A survey of a global phenomenon. Computer Networks 56: 3866–3878. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2012.08.009.

24.

Hollenbaugh

E. E.

Ferris

A. L.

(2014) Facebook self-disclosure: Examining the role of traits, social cohesion, and motives. Computers in Human Behavior 30: 50–58. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.07.055.

25.

Horton

R. S.

Reid

C. A.

Barber

J. M.

Miracle

Green

J. D.

(2014) An experimental investigation of the influence of agentic and communal Facebook use on grandiose narcissism. Computers in Human Behavior 35: 93–98. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.038.

26.

Jackson

L. A.

von Eye

Fitzgerald

H. E.

Zhao

Witt

E. A.

(2010) Self-concept, self-esteem, gender, race and information technology use. Computers in Human Behavior 26: 323–328. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.11.001.

27.

Jolliffe

Farrington

D. P.

(2006) Development and validation of the basic empathy scale. Journal of Adolescence 29(4): 589–611. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.08.010.

28.

Kapidzic

(2013) Narcissism as a predictor of motivations behind Facebook profile picture selection. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking 16(1): 14–19. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0143.

29.

Kauten

R. L.

Lui

J. H. L.

Stary

A. K.

Barry

C. T.

(2015) Purging my friends list. Good luck making the cut”: Perceptions of narcissism on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior 51: 244–254. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.010.

30.

Konrath

S. H.

O’Brien

E. H.

Hsing

(2011) Changes in dispositional empathy in American college students over time: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review 15(2): 180–198. doi:10.1177/1088868310377395.

31.

Laconi

Tricard

Chabrol

(2015) Differences between specific and generalized problematic Internet uses according to gender, age, time spent online and psychopathological symptoms. Computers in Human Behavior 48: 236–244. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.006.

32.

Lee

Kim

Y. W.

(2014) How social is Twitter use? Affiliative tendency and communication competence as predictors. Computers in Human Behavior 39: 296–305. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.07.034.

33.

Lee

S. Y.

(2014) How do people compare themselves with others on social network sites? The case of Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior 32: 253–260. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.12.009.

34.

Ljepava

Orr

R. R.

Locke

Ross

(2013) Personality and social characteristics of Facebook non-users and frequent users. Computers in Human Behavior 29: 1602–1607. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.01.026.

35.

Malik

Khan

(2015) Impact of Facebook addiction on narcissistic behavior and self-esteem among students. Journal of Pakistan Medical Association 65(3): 260–263.

36.

Marshall

T. C.

Lefringhausen

Ferenczi

(2015) The big five, self-esteem, and narcissism as predictors of the topics people write about in Facebook status updates. Personality and Individual Differences 85: 35–40. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.04.039.

37.

Martín-Albo

Núñez

J. L.

Navarro

J. G.

Grijalvo

(2007) The Rosenberg self-esteem scale: Translation and validation in university students. Spanish Journal of Psychology 10(2): 458–467.

38.

Mehdizadeh

(2010) Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking 13(4): 357–364. doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0257.

39.

Nadkarni

Hofmann

S. G.

(2012) Why do people use Facebook? Personality and Individual Differences 52(3): 243–249. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.11.007.

40.

Panek

E. T.

Nardis

Konrath

(2013) Mirror or megaphone? How relationships between narcissism and social networking site use differ on Facebook and Twitter. Computers in Human Behavior 29(5): 2004–2012. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.04.012.

41.

Paradise

A. W.

Kernis

M. H.

(2002) Self-esteem and psychological well-being: Implications of Fragile Self-esteem. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 21: 345–361. doi:10.1521/jscp.21.4.345.22598.

42.

Raskin

Terry

(1988) A principal components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54: 890–902.

43.

Raskin

R. N.

Hall

C. S.

(1979) A narcissistic personality inventory. Psychological Reports 45(2): 590. doi:10.2466/pr0.1979.45.2.590.

44.

Rosenberg

(1965) Society and the adolescent self-image, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

45.

Ryan

Xenos

(2011) Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the big five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage. Computers in Human Behavior 27: 1658–1664. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.02.004.

46.

Seidman

(2013) Self-presentation and belonging on Facebook: How personality influences social media use and motivations. Personality and Individual Differences 54(3): 402–407. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.10.009.

47.

Shirtcliff

E. A.

Vitacco

M. V.

Graf

A. R.

Gostisha

A. J.

Merz

J. L.

Zahn-Waxler

(2009) Neurobiology of empathy and callousness: Implications for the development of antisocial behavior. Behavioral Sciences and the Law 27(2): 137–171.

48.

Skues

J. L.

Williams

Wise

(2012) The effects of personality traits, self-esteem, loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students. Computers in Human Behavior 28: 2414–2419. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.012.

49.

Small

Vorgan

(2008) IBrain: Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind, New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

50.

Tazghini

Siedlecki

K. L.

(2013) A mixed method approach to examining Facebook use and its relationship to self-esteem. Computers in Human Behavior 29: 827–832. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.11.010.

51.

Teppers

Luyckx

Klimstrab

T. A.

Goossens

(2014) Loneliness and Facebook motives in adolescence: A longitudinal inquiry into directionality of effect. Journal of Adolescence 37(5): 691–699.

52.

Twenge

J. M.

Campbell

W. K.

(2009) The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement, New York, NY: Free Press.

53.

Tzavela, E. C., Karakitsou, C., Dreier, M., Mavromati, F., Wölfling, K., Halapi, E., … Tsitsika, A. K. (2015). Processes discriminating adaptive and maladaptive Internet use among European adolescents highly engaged online. Journal of Adolescence, 40, 34–47.

54.

Van den Berg

Paxton

S. J.

Keery

Wall

Guo

Neumark-Sztainer

(2007) Body dissatisfaction and body comparison with media images in males and females. Body Image 4(3): 257–268.

55.

Villadangos

Errasti

Amigo

Jolliffe

García-Cueto

(2016) Characteristics of empathy in young people measured by the Spanish validation of the Basic Empathy Scale. Psicothema 28(3): 323–329. doi:10.7334/psicothema2016.6.

56.

Vogel

E. A.

Rose

J. P.

Okdie

B. M.

Eckles

Franz

(2015) Who compares and despairs? The effect of social comparison orientation on social media use and its outcomes. Personality and Individual Differences 86: 249–256. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.06.026.

57.

Vonk

Zeigler-Hill

Mayhew

Mercer

(2013) Mirror, mirror on the wall, which form of narcissist knows self and others best of all? Personality and Individual Differences 54(3): 396–401.

58.

Vossen

H. G. M.

Valkenburg

P. M.

(2016) Do social media foster or curtail adolescents’ empathy? A longitudinal study. Computers in Human Behavior 63: 118–124.

59.

Walters

N. T.

Horton

(2015) A diary study of the influence of Facebook use on narcissism among male college students. Computers in Human Behavior 52: 326–330. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.054.

60.

Wang

Jackson

L. A.

Zhang

(2012) The relationships among the Big Five Personality factors, self-esteem, narcissism, and sensation-seeking to Chinese University students’ uses of social networking sites (SNSs). Computers in Human Behavior 28: 2313–2319. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.001.

61.

Woods

H. C.

Scott

(2016) #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence 51: 41–49.

62.

Yamamiya

Cash

T. F.

Melnyk

S. E.

Posavac

H. D.

Posavac

S. S.

(2005) Women’s exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images: Body image effects of media-ideal internalization and impact-reduction interventions. Body Image 2(1): 74–80. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2004.11.001.

63.

Young

N. L.

Kuss

D. J.

Griffiths

M. D.

Howard

C. J.

(2017) Passive Facebook use, Facebook addiction, and associations with escapism: An experimental vignette study. Computers in Human Behavior 71: 24–31.