The Need To Be Needed

We didn’t have to look very hard to find it. It’s everywhere from reality tv, face book, twitter, to you tube etc. although these seem like a random collection of current trends, all are rooted in a single underlying shift in the our psychology: the relentless rise of narcissism in the culture. People are seduced by the increasing emphasis on material wealth, physical appearance, celebrity worship and attention seeking. Standards have shifted, sucking otherwise humble people into the vortex of you tube, twitter and face book. Like a disease caused by certain factors, spread through particular channels. Social networking sites shapes the way people view the world and mold malleable personality like clay. Just animals evolve and change to fit into their environments. We are becoming more narcissistic to fit into the demands of the new digital world.

To fully participate on these sites we need to get a lot of comments, you have to continually update your page and sent your news feed announcing new pictures or materials. These sites actively encouraging people to do the digital equivalent of yelling “look at Me”! Today, many people now keep a detailed accounting of their every move online. So much of what is done on the web is people writing their diaries as though everyone ought to care about every ones’ inner turmoil. Social sites are shared among friends, it’s a convenient way to update people of your life by writing one posting instead of making phone calls. But the system of comments, responses to comments and so on encourages argument and are often one sided. It’s not a true dialogue as a verbal conversation would be, but one diatribe followed by response to the diatribe. Doing it on screen also takes out the human element of empathy, nuance and face to face interaction.

But today, we have taken the desire for self admiration too far so far that our culture has blurred the distinction between self esteem and narcissism in an extreme self destructive way. Overdose on self admiration and our wonder drugs come with serious side effects such as ignorance and self centeredness.