Happiness increases when shared. This is the reason why social media has become so popular so fast. We can make new friends, share our experiences, thoughts, feelings, and opinions, promote our brand, and get millions of followers.
However, this digital landscape has also given a platform to narcissists to seek attention and spread toxicity faster than ever before.
Narcissists flood social media with polished selfies, boastful check-ins at fancy places, and meaningless updates about their emotions.
While we may ignore them, their toxic behavior can harm others when their ego is bruised. They create a false persona to promote themselves and gain attention, manipulating others to feel superior.
Sadly, the ease of social media has allowed their toxic behavior to increase. Falling into their web of lies and manipulation can be disastrous. However, spotting a narcissist on social media is easy when you know what to look for.
In this article, we’ll explore how to spot a narcissist on social media, empowering you to stay safe and keep your digital interactions positive.
How to Spot a Narcissist on social media
1. They post a lot of selfies… A LOT
We are all guilty of taking, editing, and posting selfies on social media to get those sweet likes.
But true narcissists post an excessive number of selfies on social media. They may take selfies in different poses and settings and share them with their followers by the hour.
Their photos always show how grand and luxurious their life is, how fit and attractive they are, and how everyone wants to take ‘groupfies’ with them. In fact, they may even crop their friends out of a photo so that you see only them.
They do this because they just love getting attention which makes them fish for compliments to keep those likes, comments, and shares flowing.
Sadly, studies show that despite their desperate attempts, narcissists often get fewer likes which makes them even more desperate for attention.
2. They have a killer profile page
Their social media profile is deliberately designed to grab your attention. Studies have found that narcissists use different strategies to make you drawn to their profile pages. They use racy photos as their display picture, use a lot of aggressive and sexual language in self-descriptions and post images and captions that generate curiosity, attraction, or hatred.
No matter how you may feel about them, you simply can avoid their profile page.
3. Their captions yell “entitlement”
Narcissists post captions that are filled with self-admiration and self-importance. Their captions are lengthy and self-promoting, boasting about their accomplishments, their looks, or their perceived superiority over others. They may also use language that emphasizes their special status or importance.
Their captions tell their stories of struggles and success and how they always achieve what they want.
4. They bully others online
As narcissists lack empathy, they can be very insensitive and engage in bullying behavior on social media.
They can make derogatory comments, spread rumors, or publicly shame others. They may also disregard someone’s views, make fun of people, troll people and celebrities and engage in cyberbullying.
A narcissist may post comments or status updates that seem innocent on the surface but are actually targeted to provoke or upset someone.
5. They behave like their favorite celebrities
Narcissists on social media can often seem to be overly attached to some celebrities even though they may not have any similarities or connections with them. They may follow, comment on, and share posts by celebrities repeatedly and add captions relating to them.
They may also try to connect with these individuals directly, by sending them messages or tagging them in posts. This behavior may be driven by a desire to associate themselves with successful or powerful people or to enhance their own social status by association.
In some cases, a narcissist may even try to emulate the behavior or lifestyle of the celebrities or personalities they admire.
6. They use their sexuality to gain attention
For narcissists, sexual content is an easy and surefire way to gain the attention they feel they are entitled to. Studies have shown that narcissists are more prone to use sex to lure in potential victims to get their narcissistic supply.
A narcissist may use sexual innuendo or suggestive comments to gain attention or to make others feel uncomfortable. Posting sexual content on social media can be a form of exhibitionism, which helps the narcissist gain attention and validation by displaying their body or engaging in provocative behavior.
These easy-to-spot behaviors will help you identify a narcissist on social media so that you can unfollow them and ditch all that unnecessary drama.
However, these behaviors are not exclusive to narcissists and not all narcissists will exhibit all of these behaviors. Please remember that these signs are not meant to diagnose narcissistic behavior and having some of these signs doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is a narcissist.
While narcissists can be toxic at times, it is important that we approach them with empathy and compassion instead of chastising or ignoring them as they may be struggling with their own insecurities and vulnerabilities.
Want to share your wisdom with the world?
Reference:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271388606_When_social_media_isn%27t_social_Friends%27_responsiveness_to_narcissists_on_Facebook
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.592.6468&rep=rep1&type=pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2918908/
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