This is a bit of a follow-up question to my other post, "do video games have a bad influence?" The question, does technology breed narcissism?, is also the title of an article I wrote about the unofficial medical condition which Richard Louv calls Nature Deficit Disorder. He claims this is when children spend too much time with technology and are cut off from the outside world - they become too wrapped up in themselves and lose awareness of their surroundings. Of course, social media also encourages the "look at me" attitude. What do you think? Does technology breed narcissism?
I think that it could, but it depends on the tech. If it's something that you only use to promote and be centered on yourself, like with instagram and facebook. It encourages them to be narcissistic So, I can find only some truth about this study. Now, I don't see the correlation with video games promoting that. Now when it comes to children and this study, I'm not too concerned. This would only pertain to those who's parents just rather have the system babysit them instead of them being in charge and telling their kids to be kids and have fun outside.
Good points. As you say, social media definitely encourages the "look at me" attitude, whereas most games generally don't seem to be like that. However, narcissism isn't just about the "look at me" attitude, it's also about becoming 'stuck' in first-person mode and developing a lack of empathy for those around you. So, essentially, you only start to think about things in the way that they affect you and are not concerned with how those things may affect other people - a lack of empathy whereby you fail to recognize how certain things affect other people. In NLP, this is referred to as "meta positioning".
I have long believed we are a "me society". We have even studied it in college. I don't think it was ever postulated that it began (or ends?) with video gaming. It is an interesting idea. Most kids play video games growing up. They can be whatever they want to be in a video game world. If they die or lose in other ways they start over without consequence until they win. If they can't win, they can get legal and illegal hacks and cheats to win. Makes sense why they might become self-absorbed.
Technology doesn't make people narcissistic. It's human nature to be obsessed with "self" so when people are on social media talking about themselves, etc, etc . . . . . . they start in some way to admire themselves [even] more? No. They just don't get to do that in the real world because they'd annoy the people they hang out with. But since social media is all about "me" it brings out their true nature. IMO technology merely reflects to the world who we truly are deep down.
@Denis Hard - This is a valid point, but it depends heavily on the person. They have been people that I know that garter attention to themselves with the same tactics they use on media. They wear an outfit and then gather around friends, exclaiming "I look horrible. I feel fat." then, their friends rush in and comfort them and shower them with attention and compliments. (Yes, I note that there was GENUINE people that may feel like this, but that isn't always the case.) With the coming of technology, people have changed for the better and the worse. It's going to be either one of two things: They share with the world their love of something, to connect with others that feel that way. Or, they share with the world about themselves looking "bad" in order to get an ego boost from it.
It does, mostly because people afford to behave narcissistic, as they are behind a wall that protects their identity. That's why many people do things online that they wouldn't do in real life, and say things they wouldn't dare say face-to-face. Nothing says this better than my favorite quote, by Oscar Wilde, "Give a man a mask and he will show you his true face.". .
That's a great quote, I hadn't heard that before. I'm going to have to use that in one of my articles on narcissism. It's true what you say about having a wall to hide behind. Great valid points, perhaps it is inevitable that we are becoming increasingly more narcissistic anyway. This is what the bible claims is a sign of the end tines!
I don't think technology makes narcissists. Personally I think it's parents that make them that way. If they have enough guidance then no matter how the world changes they would always have a good enough foundation to move around and work with it.
In that regard I feel that social media in particular may make people more narcissistic and craving attention, while technology has made social media more prevalent I think that it is in no way a direct cause.
Yeah, I tend to agree with you. When you say it can be a result of parenting, it's usually (or often) the result of abusive parenting - overly smothering a child is a form of abuse too. Yes, that makes sense and it has been argued that websites like Facebook encourage narcissism. In fact, they now even refer to that type of person as a 'Facebook narcissist'!
Well at one side it may be the parents, at the other hand, it's just the way we are evolving. We're having more free time these days, and we're having less and less social contact (in general terms, some do more than others) since technology allows us to have contact without actually having to go outside. This actually kind of forces us to use this technology since everyone does, and might cause us to be more narcistic since we want to look good when having virtual contact, while though we also care about it when having real life contact, we would do it more, since it might be open to more people when you post it online. The thing is, when online, a single picture is considered enough to judge a person completely, so it actually forces us to have a good online look, since everyone seems to care that much about their virtual friends, though trying to look better and being narcistic not really related that much, I'm pretty sure that technology has a big influence in these areas somehow. Though after all that, I don't really see a direct connection to videogames and narcissisism , it more because of the social networks that that could occur. The thing is that indeed you yourself and your parents behavior determine the influence of the world, and not purely the technology. Some are just more suggestible (is that in the right context?) to these things.
Yes, that is used in the correct context and yes, you are absolutely right. Some people are indeed more suggestible than others and suggestibility is also something which can be exploited. Never underestimate the power of suggestion, it is always having an influence in our lives in some way. Advertising relies on it and so does hypnosis.
"PC Master Race." I know that's a joke but majority of PC Gamers are incredibly narcissistic. I don't think it's the technology. I think they've already got narcissistic personalities and the technology allows them to bring it out more. It's like iPhone users that don't realize there's way more advanced phones out there already.
Yes, you could be right. It could very well be because they are already narcissistic and the technology just helps them bring it out. Great iPhone user analogy too! lol.
Narcissism? What the fuck is that, is it available on Steam? In all seriousness though, I don't think this is the proper forum for this type of discussion. You're really reaching here, Sparkster.
Yeah, this thread has gone off on a bit of a tangent which is not really what I intended. It was really meant to be about whether video gaming causes a 'Nature Deficit Disorder', rather than being about narcissism as such. The argument being that many children are growing up so focused on playing video games that they become less aware of their surroundings and of what's going on around them. I just thought it would be interesting to get the perspectives of other gamers.
But on a serious note, I don't think that the problem here is narcissism. I think it's the fact video games can be, like many other things, very addictive. There's no chemical component, but recent studies show you don't need that.
You can really be addicted to a lot of things you wouldn't suspect. There's a system in our biology that companies exploit. The simple reward system in Candy Crush for example is enough to hook you on your own happiness hormones. "Whether you're gambling or eating Cheetos, you're trading your time and money in exchange for regular hits of dopamine."
Here's a very good podcast on that topic. https://soundcloud.com/crackedpod/the-economics-of-brainwashing It definitely changed my understanding of addiction. And the way I look at obese people. And the way I was addicted to video games in high school.
