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Is Social Media Making Us More Narcissistic?
By KATHERINE SCHULTEN
FEBRUARY 24, 2016 5:08 AM February 24, 2016 5:08 am
Are social media like Facebook turning us into narcissists? The Times online feature Room for Debate invites knowledgeable outside contributors to discuss questions like this one as well as news events and other timely issues. Related ArticleCredit Dado Ruvic/Reuters
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Do you spend too much time trying to be attractive and interesting to others? Are you just a little too in love with your own Instagram feed?
An essay addressing those questions was chosen by two of our Student Councilmembers this week. Angie Shen explains why she thinks it’s important:
As the generation who grew up with social media, a reflection on narcissism is of critical importance to teenagers. What are the psychological and ethical implications of constant engagement with or obsession over social media? How does it change our relationship with others and how we see ourselves?
“Narcissism Is Increasing. So You’re Not So Special.” begins:
My teenage son recently informed me that there is an Internet quiz to test oneself for narcissism. His friend had just taken it. “How did it turn out?” I asked. “He says he did great!” my son responded. “He got the maximum score!”
When I was a child, no one outside the mental health profession talked about narcissism; people were more concerned with inadequate self-esteem, which at the time was believed to lurk behind nearly every difficulty. Like so many excesses of the 1970s, the self-love cult spun out of control and is now rampaging through our culture like Godzilla through Tokyo.
A 2010 study in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found that the percentage of college students exhibiting narcissistic personality traits, based on their scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, a widely used diagnostic test, has increased by more than half since the early 1980s, to 30 percent. In their book “Narcissism Epidemic,” the psychology professors Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell show that narcissism has increased as quickly as obesity has since the 1980s. Even our egos are getting fat.
It has even infected our political debate. Donald Trump? “Remarkably narcissistic,” the developmental psychologist Howard Gardner told Vanity Fair magazine. I can’t say whether Mr. Trump is or isn’t a narcissist. But I do dispute the assertion that if he is, it is somehow remarkable.
This is a costly problem. While full-blown narcissists often report high levels of personal satisfaction, they create havoc and misery around them. There is overwhelming evidence linking narcissism with lower honesty and raised aggression. It’s notable for Valentine’s Day that narcissists struggle to stay committed to romantic partners, in no small part because they consider themselves superior.
The full-blown narcissist might reply, “So what?” But narcissism isn’t an either-or characteristic. It’s more of a set of progressive symptoms (like alcoholism) than an identifiable state (like diabetes). Millions of Americans exhibit symptoms, but still have a conscience and a hunger for moral improvement. At the very least, they really don’t want to be terrible people.
Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …
— Do you recognize yourself or your friends or family in any of the descriptions in this article? Are you sometimes too fixated on collecting “likes” and thinking about how others see you?
— What’s the line between “healthy self-love” that “requires being fully alive at this moment, as opposed to being virtually alive while wondering what others think,” and unhealthy narcissism? How can you stay on the healthy side of the line?
— Did you take the test? What did it tell you about yourself?
Henry Xu, another Student Council member who recommended this article, suggests these questions:
— What about Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and other social media feeds makes them so hard to put down?
— Do you think this writer’s proposal of a “social media fast” is a viable way to combat narcissism?
— For those who aren’t as attached to social media, do challenges from an overinflated sense of self still arise? If so, from where?
— If everyone is becoming more narcissistic, does that make narcissism necessarily a bad thing?
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ReplyDeleteSocial media isn't the only way to introduce or get attention (likes) you can do it with people you know from jobs or activities to see opinions from how they look to you.
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DeleteMelissa I agree with you we should use social networks in a positive way. Good job!!
No i don’t because i really don’t care and i rarely use social media, It’s not something personal i’m just not interested or impressed to social media and even so i wouldn’t need likes or dislikes that much and i would rather post something i feel it would be good for a person who likes it depending on what they like. The line is that if your decide view yourself and wonder what others thinks then what would you expect? Because the fact that you viewed yourself
ReplyDeleteNot to a few but a to millions of people there has to be negativity. Don’t expect that everyone will like you and of course some people will dislike you nonsense reasons, others logical reasons. You can stay on the health side by not bothering to focus on negativity and proceed more through. because of popularity feed and communication and drama between each other in social media, i really think putting down will lead to act of insanity due to the fact of how some or most people were obsessed with it seriously. Yeah but not that effective because yet the progress to continue because it’s known that they are only commenting online not in public area which means that combat wasn’t enough for them due to the fact they know it wouldn’t affect them physically or emotionally. Yes because it will be a petty and overused then social media will be a place where you will only be saying negativity and being jealous of other people and then what is the point of trying to get likes if people are narcissistic and will not like each other and being into themselves that much i really think social media will not
The same it will be drama media.
You're right social media at the time is mostly being used for drama. We can't let it overpower us. It can be used for the good and the only way we can and will be used for. The road we chose to go down is on us. Great example Emmet!!
DeleteBoth Mellissa and Ahmed are spot on!! All they do is have to start beef (another word for drama) with one another. Good job!
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ReplyDeleteMy opinion is that social networks have impacted everyone in different ways. Millions of people have social networks to people of 80 years (if my grandmother has facebook and has 80 years!). I think that social networks are good because we have the opportunity to share our experiences with families and friends who are far from us. Social networks have advantages and disadvantages, the advantages are that you can talk to acquaintances, relationships with people who do not know in other countries, you can know what is happening around the world, etc. The disadvantages are the dangers that may be subject to security of the person. Many young people do not have control of personal data, their parents do not realize and may be victims of fraud, identity theft and predators. There are many addicts who get to have mental and physical problems. People do not know have a balance between social networks and family time,think that is enough talk on internet and do not realize that you do harm to the family relationship.he wanted for a moment go to past and share like old times less internet and more time with family and friends.
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DeleteIn my opinion ,Social Media has impacted many of us . Social Media was supposed to be made to keep us from being bored and intrests us. Instead of that , it is used for drama. Every time i log into instagram all i see is drama with a whole bunch of my friends. Sometimes i even just delete it because all of this pettiness for no reason. Although there are a lot of negatives about social media , there are some positives. For instance , We can see what is going on in the world and see all the events that is going on , because everyone knows all of us teens do not watch the news because it bores us a lot . So we can see everything on there.Like the ecections , i saw who won on snapchat , actually by one of their filters. It was all over snapchat. In conclusion , there are negatives and positives about social media but it could be fun if you use it right.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the internet/social media has impacted all of us all in either a negative or a positive way. Either or we have all been impacted. Not necessarily to check what Susie's cooking for thanksgiving this year, but to see if her husband Jerry finally left her. Not so much caring or being obsessed with yourself but being entertained by others, positive or negative impacts in their lives, you witness people posting more and more about their personal life on their live like it's nothing. I believe you can be a social media forensic in a safe matter. Meaning not being the catfisher or the catfish for the sake of everyone. Overall, the rode you chose to take it as is up to us. The mind is set and if social media is the set so be it. The pencil doesn't move until it receives action. Just like our brain. Basically, the social media has taken over our way of thinking, and how we evolved over life. Down to actually seeing grandma in person, to now video chatting because it’s less cheaper. It’s good and bad the ways it can be used. The path we chose to go down with is up to us. The consequences or rewards will later on be handed to you or thrown at your face. Some days you’re the pigeon, some days you’re the statue. It doesn't matter which one you are regardless because you have to keep your head up. Although some people tend to act differently behind the phone or computer than in person, they seem two totally different people.
ReplyDeletemelisma great blog this week you did a great job. i like what u said about social media. i like how descriptive your were about the subject. i can't wait to read texts weeks blog
DeleteYes i do think it is making more and more narcissistic. Many people are always having to check their social media. Mostly because of how many likes or dislikes they got on a picture. Yes i do have to admit i am like this too sometimes. But most of the time i could really care less on how many people double tapped on my new instagram photo. Don't get wrong here i love social media because i love to watch like videos meet some new peeps but it's not normal how addicted to social media. I think my own brother is because sometimes he will get mad at me for liking his new picture because he tagged me in it so that must mean i MUST like it. But lately he hasn't been doing that and i think he maturing a little more. I think social media has many negative outputs and many positive outputs. One of the negative outputs is that people are narcissistic and crazy about stupids things on all social media. And social media has caused a lot of damaged a lot of people's lives just like tv has. Its not right for a pretty girl with gallons of makeup on to freak out about not getting as much likes as a girl fighting another girl. Like why are people getting crazy about stuff like that. It’s just little stupid, petty, insignificant things that people do. I have been at times narcissistic about social media but now i could care less if you like or didn't like my photo on Instagram. Of course i would appreciate. What's the point of sweating and getting mad about stupid little things like social media. Please let's stop the craze of having a fit over “ how many likes i got on insta”.
ReplyDeleteI do not recognize myself as as any of the descriptions in the article. I do not care some much about how many likes or views i get on something. I only use social media 1 or twice a day. Unlike my brother who is on it all day long. I use facebook instagram and sometimes snapchat. Facebook is my favorite. I have 2 pictures of myself on my instagram and i do not care how people see me or look at me.
ReplyDeleteHealthy safe love is when you care and appreciate who you really and are not your fake self. It means to show the real you to the public and not some made up life. Being virtually alive is a bad way to live. You don’t always have to be worrying about how you are living and the problems in your life. You can stay on the healthy side of the line by not using social media as much or do not post everything you are doing every time you are somewhere.
It can be hard to put social media down because their are so many people on it and millions of post are popping up every second. For Facebook it is hard for me to get off it because i see little articles that catch my attention. That is called click bait. Instagram is difficult because there is always something to look at. From 1 second ago to 5 years ago. The hardest for most people i know is Snapchat. This is the most difficult to put down because stories on snapchat are all over the world and some people have really cool things to post and some have stupid or dumb things to post. The new biggest thing that gets people on social media is live videos. Some many people take time out of their day to see what other people are doing or have to say. It is a little crazy how some many people have time to just sit back and watch a live video of someone that they will see the next day.
I think social media is a good thing because if you don’t have a certain person's phone number and you follow them let's say on twitter, you can easily DM them and ask whatever your question may be.
ReplyDeleteI think that sometimes it does because i almost basicly put my whole life on twitter but my account is private so only my followers can see what i post but the thing is that i don't really know if they are the person who the say they are or if they are the person in their profile picture.
Social media benefits us by helping us keep in contact with other people like friends or family because if that person's number you can easily contact them through the apps direct messaging.
Yes social media has changed the way we communicate because before we had we had any kind of social media people would go outside and go over their friends house and talked to them that way, but now it is all about how many followers they have on Instagram or Twitter and what their Snapchat feed looks like and all about DMing their friends or just texting them.
To be honest I think it is both better or for worse , it is better because like I said if you don't have a curtain person's number you can contact them through the apps direct messaging,and is also worse because now everything is basically all technology and people worrying about what's going on in the social media world then the actual world around them. Also they are worrying about how many followers that have or how little followers another person has. And it is also worse because of the cyber bullying because people think it is ok to make fun of people on social media because of what their pictures look like or what they the believe in
I think that social media is making us narcissists. I think it is because there are a lot of people that have social media and don't stop going on it and are on it all day everyday. But there are some people that only go on it sometimes and don't need to be on it all their lives. I use social media and i am not in love with myself i don't have to take a picture of myself all the time. I never really take a picture of myself because i don't care. I don't think that we need social media because it causes a lot of issues and people get in trouble. I feel like the world would be so much better without social media because of all the drama. Aldo people like to say what they are doing every second of the day. Random people can find out what you are doing if you put it all over social media and then something bad could happen to you or your family. That is a reason that no one should put private things on social media because people can get hurt and that could make things ten times worse. Overall social media doesn't really help us it only makes things worse. A Lot of people say that social media is the best thing ever and i don't think it is because so much bad things happen that it's not good to be around and so many people get in trouble every year. Nothing is being done to stop all the bad things from happening because people don't care and they don't see that there is anything wrong. I believe that social media is a very bad thing and people don't understand the power that it has.
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