Selfie-sickness: The Internet Narcissism Epidemic

"We are in the midst of a 'narcissism epidemic,' concluded psychologists Jean M. Twnege and W. Keith Campbell in their 2009 book. One study they describe showed that among a group of 37,000 college students, narcissistic personality traits rose just as quickly as obesity from the 1980s to the present." ...

"Researchers at Western Illinois University measured two socially disruptive aspects of narcissistic personalities -- grandiose exhibitionism and entitlement/exploitativeness. Those who had high scores on grandiose exhibitionism tended to amass more friends on Facebook." ...

"In virtual space many of the physical interactions that restrain behavior vanish. Delusions of grandeur, narcissism, viciousness, impulsivity, and infantile behavior for some individuals rise to the surface. Aboujaoude, in his book Virtually You, observes, 'the traits we take on online can become incorporated in our offline personalities.'"

The Internet Narcissism Epidemic (The Atlantic)