Abstract:  Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by inflated self-concept and desire for others’ continuous attention and admiration. Narcissists are fond of social networking sites (SNSs) because SNSs encourage different types of self-promoting behaviors. Previous studies have found that narcissism could significantly predict SNSs use behaviors (i.e. the self-selection effect), including overall use of SNSs, use behaviors on different social networking platforms, different types of use behaviors (active usage vs. passive usage), and specific forms of use behaviors (selfies, status update, social feedback, and privacy control). SNSs use behaviors could also promote individuals’ narcissism (i.e. the media effect). Therefore, narcissism and SNSs use may interact and mutually reinforce each other (i.e. the reinforcing spirals model). In addition, the association between narcissism and SNSs use behaviors can be affected by gender, age and generation gap as well as culture. Future studies should further address the issues like the definition and measurement of narcissism and SNSs use. The direction of the two interacting constructs and research methods in this area should also be explored and improved by future research.

Key words:  social networking sites (SNSs), use behaviors, narcissism