Does Participatory Media make us Narcissistic?
A recent study by professors at San Diego State finds that today’s college students are narcissist. Over 16,000 college students filled out a questionnaire to measure their NPI score (Narcissistic Personality Inventory). “The NPI test divides narcissism into seven components: superiority, exhibitionism, entitlement, vanity, authority, exploitiveness and self-sufficiency.” (Pinsky)
The study asserts that narcissists “are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors.”
“Current technology fuels the increase in narcissism,” Twenge said. “By its very name, MySpace encourages attention-seeking, as does YouTube.” From CNN
Our ability to create personal blogs and webpages, to post videos and photos of ourselves where others can see them, to create a position for ourselves (however small it may be) in the world of global media is a powerful thing. We no longer have to accept anonymity in the crowd. However, I’m not so sure that these kinds of participatory media necessarily make us narcissistic. Perhaps we feel a sense of agency, of ability to make ourselves heard, or even the power to affect change. Is that being full of ourselves? Certainly not in every case.
If feeling like I have important things to say that I want to share with others makes me narcissist then I’ll wear the label with pride and hope that others follow suit.
The NPI asks questions such as
- “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place”
- “I think I am a special person”
- “I can live my life any way I want to.”
While we should hope that we’re not raising a generation of folks hell-bent on world domination, I see nothing wrong with people feeling “special” or believing in their ability to shape their own lives. There seems to be a disconnect (from what I can find about the NPI…if you know more help me out here) between the narcissism that Pinsky talks about and the kind of self-esteem issues dealt with in the NPI found. Here are the NPI questions…see for yourself (from Raskin and Terry).
- I would prefer to be a leader.
- I see myself as a good leader.
- I will be a success.
- People always seem to recognize my authority.
- I have a natural talent for influencing people.
- I am assertive.
- I like to have authority over other people.
- I am a born leader.
- I rarely depend on anyone else to get things done.
- I like to take responsibility for making decisions.
- I am more capable than other people.
- I can live my life in any way I want to.
- I always know what I am doing.
- I am going to be a great person.
- I am an extraordinary person.
- I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so.
- I like to be complimented.
- I think I am a special person.
- I wish somebody would someday write my biography.
- I am apt to show off if I get the chance.
- Modesty doesn’t become me.
- I get upset when people don’t notice how I look when I go out in public.
- I like to be the center of attention.
- I would do almost anything on a dare.
- I really like to be the center of attention.
- I like to start new fads and fashions.
- I can read people like a book.
- I can make anybody believe anything
- I want them to.
- I find it easy to manipulate people.
- I can usually talk my way out of anything.
- Everybody likes to hear my stories.
- I like to look at my body.
- I like to look at myself in the mirror.
- I like to display my body.
- I will never be satisfied until I get all that I deserve.
- I expect a great deal from other people.
- I want to amount to something in the eyes of the world.
- I have a strong will to power.
- I insist upon getting the respect that is due me.
- If I ruled the world it would be a much better place.
From what I’ve been able to find, the real difference between confidence and narcissism is an imbalance between how you see yourself and how you think others see you. It’s the difference between looking in the mirror at your slightly overweight body and saying “I’m fat and that’s perfect!” (narcissistic) and “I’m fat. I know I could be thinner but I’m happy with who I am” (self-esteem). If you’re in denial that others might see you differently than you see yourself, or if you see yourself in an idealized way that denies the facts you might be narcissist. So it boils down to a lack of ability to take others’ views of you into account. So now let’s think back to this idea that the internet breeds narcissists.
Argue with me on this if you disagree but it seems to me that the internet does just the opposite. Sites like Hot or Not, Facebook etc allow people to be brutally honest about you or to easily show their affection for the “you” that they see. You may think that video of you dancing in your bedroom is a real smash but the five hits you got on YouTube should tell you the opposite. Easy feedback systems like this, feedback made of quantitative clear information, should help combat an incompatibility between perception and reality.
Of course, if we let ourselves think about the constructed, and often fictional, identities and egos that some use in virtual worlds like Second Life…well that’s a blog for another day.
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:54 am
no, participatory media does not make one narcisstic, participation in some manner in some events may encourage narcisism. However, really we are talking about cultural narcisism which has been seen an element of late capitalism at least since Lasch’s book The Culture of Narcism . Given the thesis of that book, the question is whether we can overcome narcissism.
I don’t think your portrayal of self-esteem versus narcissism is quite how i would portray it. Self-esteem is in my mind a synonym of narcisism, but usually on a lower valence, where narcissism can become a personality disorder and hurt people, self-esteem is seen as its tempered version, that promotes more virtuous activity. The two are part of the same spectrum of social attitudes.
One major problem in late capitalism that feeds into narcisism is the construction of the individual and individualism, as compared to collective identity, and collectivism. Narcissism might be thought of as the case when the individual weighs his or her selve above and beyond the collective’s judgment so…. in other cultures in the world, do they have other value systems that undermine this narcisism? perhaps we could look to something like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law as the basis for social or participatory media… instead of what I tend to think of as american style Ego-casting, which centers on self-promotion, etc. anyway, now i’m rambling.
March 3rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
Louis Althusser would have called the sense that “it’s all about me” interpellation (accent on the first and fourth syllables–not interpolation). Interpellation is the phenomenon of being subjected, of being the subject, of participating in your own subjectivity. One of his good examples is of the person who hears the police whistle and turns, thinking he or she is being called. The other good example is Moses answering his God’s call. I suppose it’s another form of false consciousness, being so absorbed that we don’t really “see” what’s going on, how society works.
Of course, Althusser is long dead, but the concept rings a little true. He further develops the idea that Ideological State Apparatuses, like culture or schools or government, keep us subjected/interpellated.
Narcissism is more of a psychological aberration to my way of thinking. Interpellation is more the consuming condition of the modern world, even more so through technological innovations.
But I also think that technology, particularly the Internet and Web have revealed that we all really want to say something to an audience, an audience the matters, that listens. I don’t think Althusser was thinking that far ahead, but I bet he would have been fascinated by how we found more and more ways to be the subject.
December 5th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Narcissism has little to do with self esteem, either high and low. “Healthy narcissism” acts like a coping mechanism. Of course, pathological narcs (both overt and covert) do not cope or deal with issues - overts aggressively rebutt, humiliate, and bully those who disagree; coverts deny and withdrawl when their inflated sense of entitlement is not fed by others. Narcs don’t have self esteem other than that which is provided by others - and when they don’t get it, overts display outward anger, coverts also experience anger, but withdrawl instead of agressive outbursts.