Social media, by its very nature, is quite narcissistic. After all, you are taking pictures that you think other people should be interested in. That said, there are certainly some people who demonstrate much higher levels are narcissism on social media, and it seems that narcissists will follow people with similar personalities on Instagram. When most of us see selfies or group shots taken in a selfie-style, we tend to think of the subjects as more narcissistic than people who post pictures that have been taken by someone else. Narcissists, on the other hand, think more positively of the posters of selfies. Here are some other ways that you can spot a narcissist on your Instagram feed.
‘Grandiose’ narcissists
We’ve all got those people on social media who post pictures of themselves in the gym or progress shots. Grandiose narcissists tend to be quite outgoing and flamboyant and can be identified by the many pictures that highlight their looks The odd progress picture in a weight loss journey doesn’t necessarily point to narcissism, but if they post a gym mirror selfie every time they work out, the red flags should be up.
‘Vulnerable’ narcissists
A very different type of narcissist, these are people who fall more on the introverted side of the spectrum and can be quite hypersensitive. They will be found requesting followers, using hashtags such as #followforfollow. These people get validation from the number of followers they have, rather than the quality of the interaction on their post. No matter how high their follower count gets, it will never be enough for this vulnerable narcissist.
Profile picture changing
As you would imagine, narcissists will post more selfies than the average user, but they can also be spotted by the constant changing of profile pictures. Someone who keeps the same profile picture for a while is unlikely to be a narcissist, but if you see that display picture change often, you might be following a narcissist. In fact, research has shown that narcissists are more likely to think that their own profile pictures are physically attractive, which perhaps explains the constant changes.
Users want to look cooler
All of us want to show our life in the best light possible; however, narcissists’ primary use of Instagram is to look cool. You won’t see them posting silly, unattractive pictures, especially not when they have a full camera roll of pictures of them looking so good! They will often manipulate and edit their pictures in order to portray a vastly superior life. Perhaps for these reasons, narcissists are more likely to spend longer editing their pictures before posting them. You are unlikely to see a genuine #nofilter on their accounts! Instagram is often the app of choice for narcissists as the interactions are generally pretty shallow.
Narcissists have been shown to use instagram more thoroughly than the average user. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you are a narcissist because you enjoy the social media app unless you tick the other boxes too! Scroll down your Instagram feed and see if you can find the hidden narcissists in your follower list!
