No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate: first, the effects of a user’s grandiosity on the loneliness of another user on Facebook who detected it in terms of his/her well-being status; second, the mediational role of envy between grandiosity and loneliness; and, third, whether different effects are given on narcissism, envy, and loneliness depending on social or para-social relationships on Facebook. Design/methodology/approach This study’s focus is to investigate how observing others’ grandiose behaviors impact on individuals’ feeling of loneliness. The authors propose that this relationship is mediated by the feeling of envy. The authors further postulate that social relationships that participants may have with other Facebook users would play a key role in feeling different types of envy (i.e. malicious vs benign). Therefore, the current study employed a 2 (levels of grandiosity: high vs low) × 2 (social relationship: para-social vs social) between-subjects design. Findings The authors found that one’s grandiosity as reflected on Facebook significantly affects other users’ loneliness through malicious envy. However, no moderated mediation via envy (either benign or malicious) was found within the social relationship group. Originality/value Social comparison generated by the use of Facebook was found to have an effect on the user’s loneliness through the mediation of envy. In particular, the possibility that such effects could be triggered in para-social relationships was identified.

One hundred and eighty-eight participants completed the online questionnaire with items on demographics (age and gender), social exclusion, surveillance use, Facebook addiction, and narcissistic grandiosity. The findings showed that social exclusion was positively associated with Facebook addiction (B = 0.237, p < 0.001) and surveillance use was significantly positively associated with Facebook addiction (B = 0.211, p < 0.01). The surveillance use of Facebook was found to be a significant mediator between the risk of social exclusion on Facebook and Facebook addiction (B = 0.054, CI [0.20, 0.113]). Narcissistic grandiosity significantly moderated the associations between social exclusion and Facebook addiction (B = 0.079, p = 0.012). These findings suggest that the risk of social exclusion could serve as facilitator of Facebook addiction depending on narcissistic grandiosity.