[t]he shrill chaos of a million tweets, blogs and call-in cable and radio
shows has entranced us with the sounds of our own voices and immersed us in the
white noise of narcissism.
Comment: do you think that Facebook and Twitter, utilities that let us immediately share any little detail of our lives, makes us more self-absorbed or narcissistic? Can you give an example of something or someone that supports your view?
No I don't think that facebook or twitter has that much of an affect on an individual's level of narcissism. I have a facebook and email, though I rarely send emails to friends, and almost never bother to go on facebook. If I want to talk to someone I'll call them, since I think it's more personal than texting. A couple years ago I would check my facebook about a dozen times a day, but it didn't make me think that everyone cared about what I had to say. I often left my status go unchanged for weeks or even months. The real problems we face with public comunication and the solutions to these problems are very much the same as they were when the major social forums were a front porch, or sunday mass. I think that giving every person the ability to express their opinion is a good thing. No one is going to force you to watch all 500 TV channels at once, or to spend your days filling up your hardrive with podcasts.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I disagree Chris.
ReplyDeleteYes, I suppose people like you and I aren't affected by this, but many people are. Example, people constantly change thier status 5,6,7 times a day, all saying useless things. One of my facebook friends(f.y.i. not real friend anymore) writes comments all the time about insignificant subjects about "I see a spider" of "My kitty is scared." One of my sisters friends updated her status in frequent intervols saying everything shes doing at that moment. And now, even people talk about how there bored, or they're in trouble, or they're chilling. Some people even go on, as I call them "comment wars," outdoing the the other by comparing how dreadful thier life is right now.
I believe facebook(not sure about twitter) effects 2-3 of 4 people by making them more self centered. Well, actually more like 2-5, but still, its pretty bad.
I agree both ways. Tweeting and facebook can have both effects on people. It all depends on the person in charge of it. But less of it has to do with narcissism and more with the fads of today. Teenagers who (I find) to mostly be frequent visitors of these sites are pushed by peers to get accounts. It has become a form of communication to teenagers and many other people. Just like talking over the phone, all though less thoughtful, holds the same purpose. Every group of teens has a few narcissists but thats common knowledge. I think it is more about insecurity and a want to be heard than the sound of their own voices. Just because one person you find is obnoxious and narcissistic does not mean everyone is. It depends on the person you deal with and their personality.
ReplyDeletep.s. wouldn't blogging fall into that category...?
@ Apollosbane a.k.a. Alex... Helsinki Finland.....really now?? If you were on vacation when you made the account then I guess it was a cool loophole, but otherwise a bit misleading. Awesome screename though
ReplyDeleteFirst, I know I'm not technically in this class anymore, but I'm going to be part of the blog, so there you go.
ReplyDeleteI would say that, yes, Twitter especially is a very narcissistic form of communication, and that's not necessarily bad. Among most of the teenagers I know, insecurity is a much bigger problem than narcissism. (A small sample size, it's true, but I'm going with what I know.) I feel like while things like Twitter and Facebook status updates may make people more self-centered, maybe that's good for a lot of people. Not everyone, sure, but I know a fair number of people who might be helped by thinking that what they say can matter on a community like Twitter. And no, what most people say on that site isn't important or groundbreaking, I think it's important for people to try to communicate in any way that they can. Of course, face-to-face communication would probably be best, but in the absence of that, I don't see why shouting what you're doing to the Internet should be counted as bad communication.
Narcissism is not always a vice. A little bit goes a long way toward improving happiness.
I like your opinion Swift.
ReplyDeleteIn times, random useless info about youself is a way of opening discussion for when there really is nothing engaging or important occuring. But then it gets to a point where people are so narcistic, that you don't recoginise them.
I had a great friend one time, she was a pleasure to talk to, carred about others, she was nearly selfless. I loved her, one of my best friends at the time. She one day told me she got a facebook, i was excited because this was another way to communicate, since it was hard to talk with her because she lived in Delaware. About a month and a half later, she became incredibly vain and narcistic. She would only talk about random stories that were that were eventless and refused to talk about anything communal or anything beneficial to us together(e.i. think of it as telling Mr. Dils about an amazing video game you recently purchased, lets see how much he cares). It got to the point where I couldn't recognise her personality anymore, I couldn't even talk to her anymore.
I'm truely sorry to bring in this story, but I felt that would be a good way to prove that some people can't handle facebook influence and flood with self indulgence. Some people use narcassism occasionally to strike conversasion, which is great (as said by Swift)and some people don't talk about themselves at all. Let me revise my exaggerated opinion from before to more like 1-15, its clearly not as bad as I previously stated.
Apollosbane: your story, while compelling, is not actually conclusive. It seems possible that there could be many other contributing factors to your friends narcissism other than facebook. I'm afraid that those two might be correlated and not a cause-and-effect. It might be that she got a facebook because she found that she might want to talk about herself, instead of wanting to talk about herself because she got a facebook. Maybe there was another event that made her narcissistic instead of facebook, and her signing up had nothing to do with it. I'm not sure if we can rightly say by your story that she became a less caring person because of the internet, as I believe that would be a fallacy of the single cause. Unless I'm missing some important element of the example.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Twitter (I've never been to the site. I see no point in it at all) but face book as helped me keep a close frined who live in D.C. We met during a two week acting camp and really hit it off. We keep in contact through facebook, writing long e-mails about what's going on in our lives. While we talk mainly about ourselves (because he's not physically part of my life I have to keep him constantly updated.) That's not through any sense of narcissism, I just want him to know about me and I about him. That's how we stay friends, by keeping aware of eachothers lives. And we do talk about other stuff too.
ReplyDeleteTwitter is another matter entirely. I don't need nor care for a blow-by-blow of a good friends day, let alone a famous stranger. Using facebook at least you just get the highlights. Then again I'm not a huge user of either, so my frame of reference is small. Did any of that have a point? It felt ramble-y.
I actually disagree completely with this man. I have a myspace and i go on it all the time and for more than jus to send random messages or try and get more friends than everyone else. I go on and play a game with the apps or listen to my favorite bands new album, maybe check when their next concert is around here. Technology doesn't always need to be used for information. Why not use it for fun or maybe even random other things that interest a person. I just look at it as everyone has fun somehow maybe thats how some people do, it doesn't control them, they control it...if that makes any sense to anybody but me
ReplyDelete