Skip to main content

Opinion: Has Social media made millennials narcissistic?

How many times have you heard the term 'selfie' generation or generation me me me? As an outsider looking into the behaviour of millennials it is not far fetched to come to that conclusion.

With our abundant use of Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We are constantly sharing every minute detail of our lives. Any photo opportunity is usually done with a selfie. Boredom is satisfied with selfies. We are shameless posers. We will willingly take quite a few photos of ourselves until we finally find the one we are satisfied with.

So the question remains...were millennials always like this (narcissistic)? or has the technology revolution of Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook exacerbated this and made us more narcissistic ?

To answer this question, lets look at the facts..

Social media is a relatively new phenomenon. Previous generations growing up in the 1960s-90s did not have access to social media and iPhones were not around prior to 2007. If you wanted to take a picture of something (or yourself) you needed someone else to take the photo for you, wait a week, then get the photos printed out at a kodak store and hope for the best.

When the iPhone emerged, a new feature was introduced on the camera where you could flip the camera to face yourself and then voila! the selfie craze commenced and spread like wildfire (or a disease).

As of 2017, accordingly to an article written by Maria Mercedes Galuppo on AOL there are 1000 selfies posted every second on instagram alone. Approximately 55% of users on Instagram are millennials, 24% are Generation X and roughly 9% are Baby Boomers. So with the high percentage of millennial users its not hard to ascertain who is responsible for the amount of selfies posted. #Awkward.

Do not fret millennials.

Does this tell us the whole picture? well it certainly points to attention seeking behaviour amongst millennials but this can be taken with a grain of salt.

The first thing to remember is this, millennials have grown up with technology. We are from the digital age. So naturally we were always going to dominate the likes of instagram (no pun intended). Out of the 9% of Baby Boomers who use instagram we do not know how many of them take selfies, but as they are engaging with social media more and more we are starting to see them partake in the selfie and oversharing craze.

The second thing to remember is that the social media platforms were designed to exacerbate narcissistic behaviour. With the rise of reality tv and celebrities being famous for the sake of being famous. It is not hard to see why these platforms have taken off. With the amount of 'likes' boosting our egos. We too, can feel what its like to be a celebrity simply by being on these platforms. It was our intrinsic need to be sociable, popular and likeable that attracted us. Are there more narcissists due to social media? in short no...we can just see them more visibly.

The old school narcissist had a lot more barriers to display their inflated sense of self worth. They had to actually ask a person to take their photo, go and get them printed, display them everywhere in their house by finding the correct picture frames. Old school narcissists were well hidden. They were not displayed on social media. The only way you could tell was by spending a substantial amount of time with them.

In 2017, the new narcissist has a whole heap of tools at their feet to display their favourite topic...themselves. Plus it can be uploaded within seconds without the shame factor. Everyone does it too so they don't feel alone or too embarrassed (not that narcissists generally feel embarrassed).

Narcissist behaviour is not exclusive to any one generation. For example, Donald Trump is a well known narcissist (according to some) who belongs to the Baby Boomer generation.

One thing that can be said for certain is that the millennial's love of selfies has emerged and is in everyone's face, but it doesn't mean that millennials have the traits of full blown narcissists. After all, a few selfies are relatively harmless (although maybe a little annoying).

Selfies and oversharing doesn't mean that millennials or other generations are manipulators and have an inflated sense of self worth (the common traits of a narcissist). I'm going to safely assume that millennials are not the next generation of Ted Bundys. So everyone calm down.

Narcissistic traits within individuals always existed. We just never had the tools to display it.

*Note the author is a millennial

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

We won't achieve Gender Equality until Ardern's situation is viewed as normal.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern discovered she was pregnant only six days away from being announced as Prime Minister on 19 October 2017. At first she and partner Clarke Gayford chose to keep it quiet but since announcing her pregnancy the 37 year old has received a mixed response with some feeling 'betrayed' by the announcement, accusing her of being 'selfish' for putting her needs before her country and that she chose to have her baby at the wrong time and should have 'waited' until she wasn't prime minister. Others have suggested that due to the pregnancy she will not be 'fit for purpose' and cannot possibly handle being prime minister as well as being pregnant. Mainly because you know....'baby brain?' There has also been concern around the amount of time she will take for maternity leave. Ardern has stated that she is going to take six weeks off and that her partner Gayford will look after the baby. Ardern's situat...

It's not accurate to say that someone 'lost' their battle with cancer

Whenever I see a well known person or celebrity who died of cancer the common text surrounding the death will usually include sentences such as ‘they lost their battle with cancer.’ I’ve had family members pass away from this disease but I know that I am not alone. Around 1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. My issue with the phrase is that cancer is not a battle one can control. By categorising a cancer death with ‘losing the battle’ implies that there is an element of control by the person suffering from the disease. The success rate will depend on the stage of cancer, how far it has spread and how aggressive the cancer is. Even after a cancer battle is ‘won’ (meaning remission) it is still an on going burden. Cancer treatment today involves chemotherapy but the important thing to remember is that chemotherapy is not a cure. It is a treatment. That individual will still need to monitor their cancer for years to come. ...

Freedom of Speech is Un-Australian...literally

The NSW Government passed a bill which seeks to enable 'safe access zones' for women visiting abortion clinics. The bill will mean that pro life protesters cannot harass women entering these clinics (at least within a 150m radius). This is a small victory for women who choose to access these services. What is surprising about the bill being passed was the lack of support from the NSW Minister for Women - Tanya Davies. Davies cited her reason behind the her decision was to give  protesters the opportunity to 'give information' to these women. That reasoning is unsatisfactory, for instance, if Davies is concerned about the 'information' that women need to have regarding abortions then she is misinformed about the actual procedure of abortion in NSW. The current procedure for women who choose to abort consists of counselling prior to making that final decision. At that counselling session they would be adequately informed of all their options. Therefore the ...