The psychology of social networking

That’s the conclusion of a new infographic from PsychologyDegree.net, which points out that people with “high levels of narcissism”—or, conversely, “low levels of self-esteem”—spend more than an hour a day on Facebook. (The average Internet user spends eight hours per month on Facebook, according to a 2011 Nielsen report.)

Question is, where do PR professionals and community managers who spend all day on Facebook for their jobs fit into this equation?

Beyond its basic observations on psychology, the infographic includes some rather eye-opening statistics on social networking—online and in real life. For instance, the average number of Facebook friends is 245 vs. 150 friends in real life. Does the latter number seem a bit high to anyone else? (I can name maybe eight friends, a dozen or so acquaintances, even more friends of friends, some sympathizers, a number of family members, and people I simply know—and I still haven’t cracked 100.)