Social Media-based Self-Expression: Narcissistic Performance, Public Adoration, and the Commodification of Reified Persona.

• Author: Sion, Gratiela

1. Introduction

   Selfies are linked to certain social roles and reputation (Miltner and Baym, 2015) and are features of a narcissistic society. (Murray, 2018) Users having significant levels of narcissism get involved in recurring use of selfies. (Halpern et al., 2016) People higher in narcissism tend to assess selfie-posting behavior positively, be engaged in the comments supplied by other individuals, and be attentive of other persons' selfies. (Lee and Sung, 2016)

2. Conceptual Framework and Literature Review

   The trendiness of selfies is symptomatic of a ubiquitous narcissism, or of a determination to disintegrate the public realms (Blacker, 2018; Brennan, 2018; Life, 2017; Mihaila et al., 2016; Nica, 2017; Roberts and Marchais, 2018; Roca-Sales and Lopez-Garcia, 2017) into persistent and excessive images of the self. (Giroux, 2015). The pervasiveness of narcissistic people practicing selfies may bring about an escalation of this peculiarity among individuals who have some preliminary level of narcissism, or conceivably even generating it in users who do not display it. (Halpern et al., 2016) Notwithstanding their endeavors to manage the assessments conveyed by their digital self-portraits, experienced selfie-takers may accidentally disclose features of their personality through the selfie-taking behavior, e.g. conceit and narcissism. (Re et al., 2016)

3. Methodology and Empirical Analysis

   The data used for this study were obtained and replicated from previous research conducted by BLS, eMarketer, FinanceBuzz, Georgia Institute of Technology, Mobile Marketing Data Lab, Nielsen, OPPO, Pew Research Center, Statista, and YouGov. I performed analyses and made estimates regarding U.S. adults who have ever taken a selfie (%, by ethnicity), the ways in which U.S. Internet users share selfies (%, by demographic profile), % of generation admitting to sharing selfies, U.S. smartphone users who use selfie-sharing apps (%, by age), and U.S. adults who think it is acceptable to take a selfie in various circumstances (%, by age group). Data collected from 5,200 respondents are tested against the research model by using structural equation modeling.

4. Results and Discussion

   Positions in relation to narcissism, selfie-posting, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm constitute notable drivers of a person's purpose to post selfies on social networking sites. (Kim et al., 2016) The selfie-taking behavior represents a narcissistic performance which...