Narcissism Essay Free Essay Example

On the Yahoo! homepage they have two ‘news’ sections; the first is called “trending now” and the other is a slide show of articles called “Today”. Apparently today’s (April 8th) top ten trends are the New Delhi Super bug, Federal Home loans, Tax Refund Delays, diabetes, and six celebrities. The top twelve items of today are price shut downs, new super food for spring, social media career tips, and nine celebrity related topics such as “Bieber wears a daring soccer ensemble” and “Carrie Underwood’s marital secrets”.

Hopefully upon evaluating these trends of the day – you draw the same conclusion that I came to: only seven of the above twenty two ‘trends’ are actually important – and the rest is insignificant information about the celebrities (the beautiful, rich, and famous) that we so admire. With a media that focuses on the wealthy and beautiful, it is no wonder that we honestly believe that to achieve success we must emulate these celebrities.

And with materialism and vanity comes inevitable narcissism – a trait that has replaced empathy in our declining society.

The societal norms of the ideal life and person have been redefined over the years, leading to “Americans abandon[ing] the vision of themselves as part of an interconnected social system – and instead turn[ing] to the narcissistic pursuit of the self as a source of value” (Twenge, 65). America was founded on the principles of “liberty, freedom, and fundamental equality” (Twenge, 69) these ideas establishing a foundation for independence from Britain, not narcissism.

But during the ‘self exploration’ eras of the sixties through the eighties “these powerful ideas were supplemented by the new values of self admiration and self expression [… ], which faded, [and were] replaced by a more extraverted, shallow, and materialistic form of narcissism” (Twenge, 69). These ideals have been shaped by the change of the definition of personal success, and successful parenting.

In the 1920’s mothers were given a survey and instructed to “list the traits they wanted their children to have, [the mothers] named strict obedience, loyalty to church, and good manners” (Twenge, 75); when this survey was presented to mothers in 2004 they listed (in order of importance) “to be well-liked or popular, to be successful, to work hard, to think for himself/herself, [and] to obey” as the most important traits.

This change in parenting has instilled a change within Gen Y, a 2006 poll of children finding that kids believe the “most important things in the world” (Twenge, 93) are to “be a celebrity, be good looking, and be rich” (Twenge, 94); it is the shocking truth, popularity and ‘celebrityism’ have now become synonymous, and Gen Y believes that in order to be happy they must be rich and famous – or in other words, become a celebrity.

In my own family it is clear to see this change: my 13 year old brother has dreamed of becoming a billionaire since he was a small child, when I asked him why he wants to be a billionaire and how he plans to achieve that stature of wealth he replied simply stating that if he was a billionaire he’d have the best life and would be famous, and though he has no idea how to get there – he’s confident he’ll be able to do it. We fixate on celebrities because they are the better versions of ourselves, or who we hope to become. Celebrities represent fame, wealth, glamour, and beauty; the very traits we most covet.

The media tells us that they are who we want to be – our brains interpret the ceaseless supply of information as synonymous to importance, proven by the fact that we collectively ‘hit up’ OMG news, celebrity twitter accounts, and gossip sites over 140 million times a month. All we want as humanity is respect and admiration. Before in my grandparents generation, becoming a doctor or profitable entrepreneur might have earned you these, but now in the 21st century – if I tell my peers that I want to do AIDS research in Africa, they look at my like I’m off my rocker.

It seems that only celebrities, like Football stars who work so hard for their hundred million dollar paychecks, are the only ones who can acquire widespread awe for their immortal talents. The key difference is that “previous generations may have been interested in the so called fabulous life of celebrities, [but… ] kids today actually believe fame is achievable” (Austin). Generations past may have admired celebrities such as Judy Garland or Robert Redford, but they acknowledged that realistically they would never make it to Hollywood.

Today’s generation honestly believes that they are ‘special’ – that they are capable of doing absolutely anything they want to, and mommy and daddy will help them. A three year old that I babysit next door decided that she wanted to name her new kitten Clara, after herself ; I asked her why she would want that and she replied “because I am the greatest person in the world, and I want my kitty to be too”. I was quite shocked when I heard this, and I found myself questioning what inspired this change in thought.

The answer is simple: technology and the media. Today it is easy to become famous with virtual resources such as YouTube, Second Life, American Idol, Tumblr, and etcetera. Just within the last month, a thirteen year old named Rebecca Black became viral for her ‘hit’ song Friday, going from 200 views to 200,000 plus overnight – now named the “worst song ever written” by YouTube commenters. The girl with auto tuned vocals, ‘shitacular’ dance moves, and awkward friends that look like they are twelve has now become famous for being hated.

Yet, when interviewed she thinks that her song is “an accomplishment [… ], even though they called me a whore and hate the song – it is going to be stuck in their heads” (YouTube – Good Morning America) – this statement only emphasizes the fact that no one cares what dick they have to suck (the popular fame achieving method these days), what names they will be called, what they are famous for – as long as they become famous.

I, personally, am dumfounded by extreme many teens are willing to go for the sake of fame. When a freshman keys “COCK SUCKER” into a junior’s car, and dumps hot dogs all over it too – all because the junior hooked up with the freshman’s ‘friend-with-benefits’ while drunk, I know that my generation is in trouble.

And maybe it is not my position to care about how other people choose to spend their time, but in reality – we are the generation that needs to eradicate AIDS, that needs to end the fighting in Iraq, that must find an alternative to gasoline – but instead we sit on our asses tuned in every evening to MTV fantasizing about becoming the next Paris Hilton, Ke$ha, or P. Diddy – complete with the “Big Barbie Mansion” and $150,000 Porsche.