Social media and narcissism
- Both social media usage and narcissism are readily increasing among millennials o “Recent research supports the often-made assertion that the millennial generation are more narcissistic.” (Twenge, Knorath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, 2008a, 2008b) o “over 90% of college students having facebook profiles” (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007)
- Social media is an easily accessible outlet for narcissists to reinforce their narcissistic tendencies o “Narcissism was related to the reported reasons why Millennials update their status and the image they hope to project through their SNS profile” o “Positively related to the reported belief that participants’ SNS friends were interested in what they were doing and to the participants’ reported
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M., Fearrington, M. E., Davenport, S. W., & Bergman, J. Z. (2011). “Millennials, narcissism, and social networking: What narcissists do on social networking sites and why.” Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 706-711. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.12.022
Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W.K. (2008). “Narcissism and social networking web sites.”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(10), 1303-1314. doi: 10.1177/0146167208320061
Davis, K. (2012). “Friendship 2.0: Adolescents' experiences of belonging and self-disclosure online.” Journal of Adolescence, 35(6), 1527-1536. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.02.013
Ellison, N., et al. (2007). “The benefits of Facebook ‘friends:’ Social capital and college students use of online social networking sites.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x
Kuss, D.J., & Griffiths M.D. (2011). “Excessive online social networking: Can adolescents become addicted to Facebook? Education and Health, 29(4), 63-66.
McCain, J., & Campbell, W.K. (2016). “Narcissism and Social Media Use: A Meta-Analytic Review.” Psychology of Popular Media Culture. doi:
The new greatest generation was written by Joel Stein, and is critical analysis of the new generation in this article Stein states that people that are in the new millennial generation are considered narcissistic, lazy, and highly unmotivated. He is a writer for the world famous time magazine. The author thinks the only thing the new generation cares about is themselves. The author ran some tests on a huge amount of college students to see if they were narcissistic or not, according to those statistics he found that about fifty percent in 2009 are al considered to be narcissistic. The author shows that technology
“Narcissistic Personality Disorder.” Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. N.P., 20 May 2005. Web. 19 May 2010.
An unfortunate development in the past few years is the social construct that the future generation is steadily becoming more selfish and vain. Likely originating from the countless “selfies,” or pictures of oneself, being taken by teenagers and young adults, adults of the last generation seem to be under the impression that the Millennials in line to take power will have more priorities meant to benefit the individual rather than the population as a whole. Thankfully, they are mistaken. Still, though, it is a problem that the line between self-confidence and narcissism has become so thin that we can no longer be one without the other. General impressions of the words have been passed down through the years, and unfortunately both have become so watered down that they seem basically the same. So what is the difference between confidence and narcissism?
What happens when Narcissism takes over a generation? Is that generation the only generation who is affected? A narcissistic generation does not happen on it 's own. Majority of Millennial 's characteristics are negative but not entirely negative. However, Generation Me only values themselves. Their overemphasis on self-esteem is well intentioned but often leads to narcissism. Both terms can be avoided with proper treatment.
Today, our culture demands us to be perfect, thin, powerful, successful, smart, extraordinary, but when people begin to try achieving them, we start labeling them as narcissists. The problem is that it is impossible for anyone to please everyone. Brown defines narcissism as simply a “fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose” (22). Before giving out labels, it is wise to practice asking ourselves questions to clear the intentions and reasons of someone’s behavior. For example, teenagers posting pictures of themselves online to gain some attention reveals that the culture has taught them that they are as lovable as the number of likes and comments they get on social media. Negative feedback roots into negative thinking about vulnerability and causes them to shut themselves down and never show their real selves again. Encouraging others to believe that they are perfect as themselves, will plant a positive attitude in them and push them to pursue their goals and visions to fulfill their dream of a happy
According to Webber, narcissists are normal people victimized by “an overused label”; in fact, narcissists have healthy egos who “happen to indulge in the occasional selfie, and talk about their accomplishments” (Webber 54). She strategically organizes the quotes of many experts to give a more favourable sense of the word, clarifying that narcissism not only makes people feel good about themselves, but it also boosts confidence and helps individuals “take risks, like seeking a promotion or asking out an attractive stranger” (Webber 55). She also makes the persuasive point that individuals are more narcissistic in their earlier years of adulthood, making an ethical observation that “young adulthood is a time when people are largely free of responsibilities, either to their family of origin or the family they will eventually establish” (Webber 60, 61). These are the times when people are free to pursue an independent life and make independent decisions without the restraints of family to hold them back. Although narcissism is a natural part of an individual’s personality, Webber does point out that, too much of it can become a
In Jean Twenge’s novel titled, “Generation Me”, she describes “Generation Me” as a group of self-obsessed, overconfident, assertive, miserable individuals. “Gen-Me” cares about what other people think so much they 'll go to great lengths to “impress” their peers. Self-obsession can be viewed as a sickness of the mind. The average person may be oblivious to the fact that 1 out of 6 people are narcissists. “Narcissism falls along the axis of what psychologists call personality disorders, one of a group that includes antisocial, dependent, histrionic, avoidant and borderline personalities. But by most measures, narcissism is one of the worst, if only because the narcissists themselves are so clueless.” - Jefferey Kluger
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2009). The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement. Simon and Schuster.
Karrie Lager, a child psychologist practicing in Los Angeles, says. “However, excessive internet use can have serious negative consequences,” she explains in response to a survey published by CASA Columbia (Stein, 2014). Dr. Lager has a great point, she believes that the use of technology for communication is a great thing for children, but she also agrees that using it to excess can be harmful and dangerous to a child. A lot of children, as well as adults use social media as fuel to their self-esteem and their self-worth, by doing so they become addicted wanting to use it more and more to never feel less than they should. Unfortunately because of this the addictive tendencies are becoming more apparent “Social media is simply providing a quicker peeling of the onion, however in most cases the problems were already there,” Dr. Sophy says, “Many people are genetically predisposed to use excessive amounts of potentially harmful tools (sex, substances, food, social media, etc.) to self soothe. And yet there are others who learn these behaviors due to life circumstances and events” (Stein, 2014). As you look closer to the problem one can understand that there are beneficial factors to social media but they can also see that there are factors that are harmful. If children are using social media more and more there is naturally going to be
The use of social networking sites is rising at great rates. According to a report conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2012, ninety-five percent of individuals aged 12-17 use the internet; and eighty-one percent of those use social network sites (Pew Interest). Although it is known that social media can have a useful impact on lives, often times people forget that with a positive comes a negative. The continual use of social network sites will impact teen lives more negatively than positively because they can cause huge distractions from valuable and critical pursuits like education; they can also cause mental health issues and a reduction in communication skills.
Social media has taken over the world of communication and has changed the ways in which we communicate on a daily basis. It is extremely influential on our lives because of how easily we are able to access these mediums of communication. I’m intrigued by the effects that social media has on people’s perceptions of their self-worth. Almost all of the social networking sites seem to measure, at least to some extent, the popularity level or status of its users. All have a number of ‘followers’ or ‘friends’ which if there’s a high number of followers or friends that seems to elevate a person’s popularity level or their online status. This in turn could make their self-esteem or ego rise, whereas if their follower level is low it may disappoint or aggravate that user. All of these sites also offer areas where followers can ‘like’ pictures or posts, ‘comment’ on these pictures/posts, ‘share’ the post, and what have you. How important are ‘likes’ and whatnot to our actual self-esteem? Do we value online popularity the same way or more than we value real-life interactions? How could this affect the mental health of those who use these networking sites? Is this kind of online community promoting more narcissistic persons in the community? So many questions… I’m not alone in asking these questions. I’m convinced that social media has a negative influence on the self-esteem of its users.
When someone “friends you” on Facebook, it doesn’t automatically mean that you have some special relationship with that person. In reality it really doesn’t mean that you now have the intimacy and familiarity that you have with some offline friends. And research shows that people don’t commonly accept friend requests from or send them to people they don’t really know, favoring instead to have met a person at least once (Jones). A key part of interpersonal communication is impression management, and some methods of new media allow people more tools for presenting themselves than others. SNSs in many ways are podiums for self-presentation. Even more than blogs, web pages, and smartphones, the atmosphere on a SNS like Facebook and Twitter enables self-disclosure in a focused way and permits others who have access to ones profile to see their other friends. This merging of different groups of people that include close friends, family, acquaintances, and friends of friends, colleagues, and strangers can present issues for self-presentation. Once people have personal, professional, and academic contacts in their Facebook network the growing diversity of social media networks creates new challenges as people try to engage in impression management
Ellison, Nicole B., Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lamp. “The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites.” Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 23 Aug. 2007. Web. 06 Nov. 2013. .
These things have become so common that not having them almost makes it seem like there is something missing. Because of features such as these, it is incredibly easy to share every aspect of what we are reading, doing, eating and listening to with everyone in our social networks. While this has meant incredible advances in the way we interact with our world, it has also fundamentally changed the way our social relationships are created and sustained. Social medial led users to have false impression of others and changed our feelings. Because social media users tend to only show the most positive aspects of their lives, social media users have a false sense of reality when it comes to how they seem themselves, how others see them and how they see other people. “It is not difficult to say that social media effect our perception of others” (Goshgarian213).
They struggle with low self-esteem. They struggle with making independent decisions. They struggle with succeeding in the workforce. However, none of these struggles are their fault. They are the millennials. According to Simon Sinek, millennials are a group of young, ambitious and hardworking individuals currently entering the workforce. Nonetheless, they are encountering hurdles that have been unheard of until now due to several external factors. As there are constant changes in societal expectations as well as personal expectations, millennials often have difficulty finding where they truly belong. Over the course of his discussion, Sinek targets several different factors and how they contribute to the downfall and characteristics of millennials. Therefore, I believe that there is no doubt that Sinek’s depiction of millennials as low self-esteemed and narcissistic