There are a lot of people who just love posting obnoxious updates on Facebook. There are the kinds of friends who will want you to know everything that goes on in their lives. A study at Brunel University in London is saying that these people may have psychological issues.

They collected data from 555 Facebook users who completed online surveys measuring the "Big Five" personality traits - extroversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

They found:

People with low self-esteem more frequently posted status updates about their current romantic partner.



Narcissists more frequently updated about their achievements, which was motivated by their need for attention and validation from the Facebook community. These updates also received a greater number of ‘likes’ and comments, indicating that narcissists’ boasting may be reinforced by the attention they crave.



Narcissists also wrote more status updates about their diet and exercise routine, suggesting that they use Facebook to broadcast the effort they put into their physical appearance.



Conscientiousness was associated with writing more updates about one’s children.

And the reason they keep doing that is because we are all enabling them. According to Dr. Tara Marshall:

“Although our results suggest that narcissists’ bragging pays off because they receive more likes and comments to their status updates, it could be that their Facebook friends politely offer support while secretly disliking such egotistical displays. Greater awareness of how one’s status updates might be perceived by friends could help people to avoid topics that annoy more than they entertain.”