A wave of narcissism

An epidemic case of ‘self-love’…

May 01, 2013 06:20 pm | Updated 08:28 pm IST

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Social networking websites, we all know what they are. Some of us practically live in it. They keep our heart pumping and blood flowing into all the right nooks and crannies.

Before the arrival of social networking sites like Facebook, friends of friends were strangers, relatives of friends were strangers and strangers were strangers. But times change and so have social networking sites. We keep in touch with that one distant friend who is constantly belittling everyone else while rating his or her own popularity based on asinine Internet polls. We do the same with that distant relative whom we don’t really care about, but keep in touch because we never really took them off our friend’s list.

With the advent of these websites, family ties and friendships have becomes more closely knit in some cases, while the exact opposite has occurred in others. Conversely, a negligible portion has becomes famous while another sizable portion has embroiled itself in some problem.

Now to my point: Facebook has somehow triggered our narcissistic traits, and has accordingly introduced us to our own narcissistic side that just loves to revel in recognition and appreciation.

We all like taking pictures of ourselves (and occasionally of others) and secretly relish the fact that others see them, but no one likes to admit it. So, we take a picture, subject it to editing that morphs its humble original content, then upload it and wait for the banality to begin.

Gender is almost immaterial in this case; boys are just as self-indulgent as girls. Here are some synonyms for “narcissism” that don’t make it sound like a serious medical condition: vanity, conceitedness, self-love. So, why is there this sudden wave of narcissism, nay forgive me, self-love, that is manifesting itself in this manner?

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