Instagram, Selfie, Social Media, Self-esteem, Self-Presentation, Narcissism, Erving Goffman

What is it about?

When the concept of a narcissistic personality is analyzed, it is defined as an individual who admires his or her own physical and psychological characteristics and likes her/himself excessively. We separate ourselves from others and form a private sphere for ourselves through the notion of ‘self’ which develops in the process of communication. All of the thoughts and senses related to one’s self are included in the notion of self. Self-esteem is defined as an individual who considers him/herself worthy, effective and successful. According to Goffman’s theory of self-presentation, strangers get to know each other by conducting particular information about themselves mutually, and acquire certain impressions about each other. Within the scope of this article, the question of “Is social media one of the methods to express narcissism?” shall be asked when the idea of self and narcissism are discussed - using a frame of social network usage habits. The results of a scale of online narcissism and self-esteem and their relationship to content shall also be examined. The aim is to reveal the connection between selfies, self-esteem and narcissistic characteristics of the social media user’s Instagram profiles in Turkey and to examine the relationship between self-esteem and narcissism levels of Instagram users from social media as a social presentation space where the person presents her or himself. The SPSS package program is used in the data analysis to determine the relationship between narcissism and self-esteem, as is “Pearson Correlation” analysis. At the end of the study, a positive intermediate level relationship was found in the scores between the narcissism and self-esteem of the Instagram users who share selfies. The study concludes that high self-esteem has brought an increase in narcissism, and this increase has been revealed as a self-presentation through selfie.

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Why is it important?

The study concludes that high self-esteem has brought an increase in narcissism, and this increase has been revealed as a self-presentation through selfie.With this article, the self and narcissism were defined, online narcissism and self-esteem were measured, with social media being seen as one of the new spaces for narcissism. Due to the hardships of sampling however, and thus lower numbers of participants, this study should be considered as a pre-research for later works. According to the research findings, taking selfies and self-presentation brings an increase in narcissism. Self-concept and presentation, self and body relation, selfie shots and social networks as presentation spaces, and the concept of narcissism were examined.

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