Facebook was shown to have some links self-esteem and narcissism in young adults, according to a study conducted by a top shrink at York University in Toronto. In a survey of 100 college students, young people with narcissistic personality traits were shown to exhibit Facebook activity that was distinctly more self-promotional.

According to the boffin in charge of the report Soraya Mehdizadeh, these people had "About Me" sections that referred to their intelligence and photos that were more about displaying the user's physical attractiveness than about capturing memories with friends. She defined narcissism as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration and an exaggerated sense of self-importance."

Facebook "offers a gateway for hundreds of shallow relationships and emotionally detached communication" and a great deal of control over how he or she is presented to and perceived by peers and other users. She thinks that narcissists would show more overall Facebook activity than average users and that their activity would be more self-promotional, either descriptively or superficially.

People who scored higher on the study's narcissism test also spent more time on Facebook and checked it more times each day than their less narcissistic counterparts. Blokes were more self-promotional in their "About Me" descriptions, using this section as an opportunity to highlight their intelligence and wit. Female users with tended to use images in their self-promotion, uploading content that "include revealing, flashy and adorned photos of their physical appearance."