Saturday, January 29, 2011

Narcissism

I think the ruling characteristic in America is narcissism, and it’s slowly unraveling the fabric of our society. I realize in writing this and publishing it to a personal blog, I am displaying a kind of narcissism myself, and that act can be construed as a kind of hypocrisy. But at the same time, I haven’t necessarily excluded myself from the diagnosis of the plague of narcissism that’s taken a hold of us all.

You can see it, I’m sure in nearly every interaction you face day-to-day, from the strangers that ask “how are you?” and move on without even waiting for a response, to your best friends that converse only in personal relations. “I think this” “I’ve done that.” It extends from young children to the elderly, but is probably most prominent in the young adults of the world today, especially with the onset of attention-span depreciating forms of new technology. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace… these were all, in essence created as a tool to keep people in contact with one another, a way of maintaining equal social interactions. But in the hands of this nation and this generation, they’ve all turned into self-absorbed pleas for attention in the world.

Everybody believes they are inarguably special, that somehow they’re better, smarter, stronger than everyone else around them. And this arrogance manifests itself in a complete and total lack of acknowledgement and sympathy for others. We all need to learn how to listen more and speak less.

Of course I realize the irony of posting this is a blog. I did say I was no exception.

7 comments:

  1. People are more and more turning into, well, attentionwhores nowadays. All talk and no ear for anybody else. =/

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  2. Narcissim, or ethnocentric? Well, in any case, I think most Americans aren't very humble.

    Maybe it's the result of a culture focused on the individual rather than the group. Despite this negative side effect, I still believe in the philosophy of individualism.

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  3. I definitely agree with this.

    Following!

    xx

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  4. This post really made me think about my interactions with other people, deep post man keep it up.

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  5. I hate how self absorbed people can be sometimes. I like your blog, I'll be following!

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  6. Thats pretty cool. I've never thought of things like this before, but now that you say it I recognize it and realize how much it annoys me. This has entirely changed the way i perceive the world.

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  7. I see this all the time. I used to work in a restaurant and thinking back it was amazing how many people would simply ignore you when you asked how their day was going or would be so wrapped up in a phone call or something that they would waste other peoples time around them.

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