Exploring Social Media’s Role in Millennial Narcissism

by Kate Swan

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY:

In this current day and age, social media is omnipres-ent throughout the majority of the world. Online social net-working platforms have gained popularity that spans across generations, cultures and continents. These websites and apps share a common motivation of connecting people with one another through digital means of communication, rath-er than physical or personal ones. Despite the fact that the underlying goal of these platforms is to connect people with each other, they often create self-involvement rather than interpersonal involvement. Many individuals use the num-ber of likes they get on posts or photos and them number of friends or followers they have to quantify their self-ap-preciation, rather than their connections with others. This phenomenon can often create an inflated sense of self, es-pecially in young people who have grown up around social media for their entire life. The idea that everyone is actually dedicated and interested in every last thing another per-son puts online can lead to a dangerous path to narcissism, which can affect the ways in which people function in their everyday lives.

Social media usage can urge a dangerous balancing act between keeping up with friends and family in a healthy manner and shamelessly promoting oneself for no reason other than material goods and physical appearance. Com-ing out of the Great Recession, media has entered an age of opulence, where many believe that they can become famous due to nothing other than their wealth and beauty. Accord-ing to Neil Hall, this mindset has been largely contribut-ed to by people like the Kardashians, who have created a multimillion dollar empire through social media and net-working despite not having any skills or talents that would qualify them to become traditionally famous. These kinds of celebrities flaunt their lavish lifestyles on social media, and as people idolize them, they in turn idolize their lifestyles. This creates an often unrealistic comprehension of fame and wealth. Growing up around social media that is heavily satu-rated with these types of people that have gained extreme amounts of wealth from promoting their unattainable and luxurious lifestyles has caused many young people feel as though they have to emulate the same qualities through their social media. The more people can create a desir-able look and lifestyle through their social media pages, the more gratification and assurance they gain from their friends and followers. This digital gratification can be ex-tremely damaging, due to the fact that it is founded in noth-ing other than the curated lifestyle that people choose to portray and that it detracts from the real gratification of ac-tual person-to-person interactions.

IDEAS, ANYBODY?

When analyzing the apparent narcissism that has fes-tered within young people due to overindulgence in social media, one question comes up above the rest: How does the use and overuse of social media affect the mindset of the millennial generation? Millennials and young people use social media more actively than any other generation, so their behavior drawn from social media should theoretically be the most affected. Whether or not the generational use of social media leads to narcissism is surely dependent on the individual. However, analyzing the trends in the ways in which usage leads to psychological changes could provide insights into the generation as a whole. Gaining an under-standing of the way growing up deeply immersed in tech-nology has affected a generation’s psychology could lead to a deeper comprehension of the motivations of the genera-tion. Understanding how the psychological state is affected by continuous exposure to technology could also help an-swer a number of other questions in the same vein.

The research could also pose an answer to the question of which social media platforms have the most influence over the mindset of the younger generation. Additionally, it could shed light on the generational differences in how the age groups use social media and their motivations for using it in the way that they do. Furthermore, research could help analyze the phenomenon of young adults becoming less attracted to emotional intimacy and more drawn to digital communication. In countries such as Japan, many people hire “love workers” for physical intimacy, because the over-use of technology has turned them away from emotional intimacy. While the overuse of technology and social media poses many questions in today’s ever-advancing society, the most prevalent question to acknowledge is how the use of social media affects the mindset of millennials and young people.

UNPACKING THE ISSUE:

Understanding the inner workings of the mindset of one of the largest generations ever has massive potential for learning about the future of the human race. Many scien-tists, psychologists and sociologists have begun to research the ways in which social media and technology are affecting the brains of today’s young people. A few researchers, such as Laura E. Buffardi and Campbell W. Keith, have come to the conclusion that there is a positive correlation between narcissism and social media usage. Additionally, according to Shaun W. Davenport, the rates of narcissistic personali-ty disorder have increased from the 1970s, correlating with the rapid technological advancements in the time period. However, while social media has often been found to have an increasing effect on narcissistic tendencies, it also has a negative effect on self-esteem. People with narcissistic ten-dencies have an inflated sense of self-importance, but often have a low self-esteem that they compensate for with nar-cissism. A. E. Vogel, J. P. Rose, L. R. Roberts, and K. Eckles con-

ducted a study on social media and self-esteem in which they found that social media has a huge effect on self-com-parisons, as many people examine their lives compared to others through the lens of social networks. However, due to the fact that most people curate only the most desirable aspects of their lives on social media, people are generally comparing themselves to a false lifestyle. These unrealistic standards can cause much damage on the psyche of young people, as they grow up to believe that others are living much more luxuriously and therefore have more meaning-ful lives and relationships. Additionally, one study conducted by Laura E. Buffar-di and Campbell W. Keith in 2008 found that narcissists tend to prefer shallow relationships without much intimacy, which is why they are often drawn to social media. The su-perficiality of social media plays directly into the common narcissist’s need for a massive number of shallow relation-ships, or “friends”. Due to this, narcissists are attracted to social media, because the fact that they can quantify their popularity and desirability online is appealing to their self-importance. Another study conducted by Tiffany A. Somerville in 2015 analyzed the correlation between usage of social media and the levels of narcissism (as measured by the Hypersen-sitive Narcissism Scale) in its participants. The Hypersensi-tive Narcissism Scale consists of ten statements that partici-pants rate on a scale of one to five, depending on how much they agree with each statement. The study hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between more time spent social media and higher Hypersensitive Narcissism

Scale results. The researchers found that they had hypothe-sized correctly and that the hours per day people spent on-line directly correlated with their levels of narcissism. After analyzing multiple studies from academic sourc-es, I decided to take matters into my own hands and gather some data regarding social media usage. I used a Google Survey that consisted of about twenty questions regard-ing the participants’ demographics and social media habits to conduct my research. While I did not survey people on many questions regarding narcissism, I did find some inter-esting data regarding the motivations for why my genera-tion uses social media and how they use it. For my sample group, I received 44 responses, the ma-jority of which (77.3%) were females and/or were between the ages of 18 and 24 (79.5%). There were some responses from people under 18 and some between the ages of 25-60, however, I think that due to the people I had access to, most of the responses came out in my generation. When asked how many hours those between the ages of 18-24 spent on social media per day, the most popular answer was 3-4 hours (35%). The next most popular was 1-2 hours (29%), then 5-6 hours (26%), then followed by less than 1 hour (9%). This shows that those surveyed between the ages of 18-24 spent an average of 3.058 hours on social media per day. Facebook and Instagram were tied for the top used website among the respondents, both coming in with 88.6% of users. The next most popular social media was Snapchat (81.8% of respondents), then Tumblr and Twitter (47.7%), fol-lowed by Pinterest (36.4%).

In addition to the logistical questions posed in the survey, I wanted to add one that would come up with some kind of results on how social media is affecting people’s’ psyches, so I asked “How does social media make you feel about yourself?” and allowed the respondents to choose between “better”, “worse” and “neutral”. The vast majority (68.2%) of people said that social media made them feel neutral about themselves, while 18.2% said that it made them feel better and 13.6% said it made them feel worse. However, each one of participants that said social media made them feel worse about themselves still use social media, most even use more than one platform. This sort of self-deprecating behavior plays directly into the egotistical values of our current cul-ture surrounding social media. Even those who actively feel worse about themselves from using social media, still use it because they do not want to feel left out or excluded from their social circles and generation. While social media can be extremely damaging to some, many of the people I surveyed greatly enjoy social media and find that it strengthens their relationships with friends and family, especially those of which do not live in close proximity to the respondents. This shows some of the value of social media, in contrast to its downfalls. Louis Lueng conducted a study in which he examined the generational differences in social media usage. He found that the older generations more often used social media to keep in contact with family and friends than for self-promotion. In conclusion, research shows that there is a positive correlation between hours spent on social media per day and levels of narcissism. However, many people use social

media in a healthy manner to stay updated with friends and family and learn about art, science, culture, etc.

LET’S DO THIS:

For the studio portion of my project, I started with the idea of placing the view in a situation where they would feel narcissistic. I wanted to place the viewers in this sort of sit-uation in order for them to reach a place of self-reflection. I wanted to create a modern adaptation of the myth of Nar-cissus, while still trying to keep the project open to inter-pretation and self-reflection. For my project, I am making an installation with all mirrored surfaces that will sit on the ground for people to look down into. The bottom of the in-stallation contains plexiglass with a photo collage of black and white images of people on their phones in otherwise social situations. On the other end of the plexiglass, I or-ganically painted on swatches of the color Millennial Pink. Millennial Pink has come into mass popularity in recent years and has been used to target millennials in marketing. I thought that the combinations of these two aspects on the bottom of the box would be representative of both Millen-nials and their social media usage.

LESSONS LEARNED:

Throughout this project, I have learned about the im-portance of balancing social media with interpersonal inter-action in order to keep perspective in life. I have found that millennials often spend an excessive amount of time im-mersed in these platforms, which can inflate their ego and establish narcissistic personality traits. The positive correla-tion between time spent on social media and levels of nar-cissism is highly alarming within the younger generations and could cause serious harm to those abusing social me-dia. Due to the increase in the levels of narcissism in young people since the 1970s, people must actively try to avoid overuse of social media and its role in self-indulgence. Indi-viduals can do this by trying to participate in more person to person interactions and take time away from technology and social media every day. While I do believe that social media can be positive for people in the sense of connecting with friends and family, I also acknowledge the dangers as-sociated with social media and self-importance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Buffardi, Laura E., and W. Keith, Campbell. “Narcissism and social networking web sites.” Personality and social psychology bulletin 34, no. 10 (2008): 1303-1314.This source was useful because it discusses how narcissists are drawn to social media due to the fact that they are seek out shallow relationships, rather than meaningful ones. This helps add depth and understanding to the mindset of the narcissistic social media user.

Davenport, Shaun W., Shawn M. Bergman, Jacqueline Z. Bergman, and Matthew E. Fearrington. “Twitter versus Facebook: Exploring the role of narcissism in the motives and usage of different social media platforms.” Computers in Human Behavior 32 (2014): 212-220.This source was useful because it examines the differences in how Facebook and Twitter foster narcissism. The study comes to the conclusion that most narcissists of the college age use Twitter more than Facebook. The study also focused on the differences between engaging with social media actively (posting content) and passively (engaging with content).

Hall, Neil. “The Kardashian index: a measure of discrepant social media profile for scientists.” Genome biology 15, no. 7 (2014): 424.This source was interesting because it examined the phenomenon of becoming famous due to vir-tually nothing and using social media to expand one’s celebrity. It also examined the cultural influ-ence that celebrities have on social media.

Leung, Louis. “Generational differences in content generation in social media: The roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism.” Computers in Human Behavior 29, no. 3 (2013): 997-1006.This source was useful because it outlines the ways in which people get gratification through social media: “showing affection, venting negative feelings, gaining recognition, getting entertainment, and fulfilling cognitive needs.” The study also analyzes the generational differences between the use of Facebook and blogs.

Ong, E.Y., Ang, R.P., Ho, J.C., Lim, J.C., Goh, D.H., Lee, C.S. and Chua, A.Y., 2011. Narcissism, extraversion and adolescents’ self-presentation on Facebook. Personality and individual differences, 50(2), pp.180-185.This source is particularly interesting, because it focusses solely on social media sites fostering nar-cissism within adolescents grades 7-9. It came to the conclusion that the amount of statuses people posted and the amount of online attention they got had a positive correlation with their level of narcissism.

Somerville, Tiffany A. “The effect of social media use on narcissistic behavior.” Journal of Undergraduate Research 25 (2015).This source is very useful because it details numerous ways in which other studies have outlined the effect of social media on narcissism. Additionally, this source provides new information regard-ing the Hypersensitive Narcissism Sale in relation to different social media usage patterns.

Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Roberts, L. R., & Eckles, K. (2014). Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3(4), 206-222. This source is interesting because it focuses on the psychology of how social media affects people. The source also focuses on social comparison and how social media can negatively impact it.