Our narcissistic society…
Maureen Dowd, NY Times columnist, recently quoted James Gleick, author, historian, and chronicler of how technology affects our lives. (I remember him for his bio on Feynman.) The quote: “Running for president is the new selfie.” Considering the context in Ms. Dowd’s column, she was using it to refer to that most irascible and narcissistic of GOP candidates, Donald Trump, last seen in a revival-style meeting in the South (he even referred to Billy Graham). But this post isn’t about Trump or even politics. Instead, I’ll use the quote to explore the topic in the title.
One of the reasons I’m not active on Facebook anymore (there are many) is that I became tired of how incredibly narcissistic many FB users are. People mounting internet soapboxes to send their harangues out to the world about myriads of causes from politics and religion to personal food choices is the least of it. Zuckerberg and friends, super-narcissists in their own right, have tapped into a new 21st century phenomenon (yeah, it started in the late 20th): people are incredible narcissists, and it spans all generations, from Baby Boomers to Gen-Xers and Millennials. Maybe they can’t have Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame, but they can sure have their fifteen second chunks of it on FB—or so they think.
Zuckerberg and friends have given people what they want. People put up their family pictures for all to see and family and friends ooh and aah and click “Like” and comment on how wonderful everyone looks…bla-bla-bla. And the oohs and aahs are returned in kind—everyone admires everyone else, and everyone is happy in their narcissism. Just call FB electronic Prozac. FB users first and foremost form collections of mutual admiration societies. Babies, people on vacation, new consumer products that were bought—they all shout, “Look what we have!” Facebook injects an electronic feel-good drug, Huxley’s soma from Brave New World for the modern age, courtesy of Zuckerberg and friends.
I get messages all the time, from “See X’s new profile pic” to “See X and Y’s new baby.” I don’t care if you’ve changed your profile—if I look at your FB stuff, I’ll see your new pic (not likely anymore, so why should I care?). Most people don’t change much as adults. That’s why mug shots are useful—the cops wouldn’t use them otherwise. And, if you’ve had plastic surgery done, I doubly don’t care—unless you’re the victim of a fire or some other accident, plastic surgery is just another expression of your narcissism. And those babies? Hell, most babies are cute, but if you’ve seen one cute baby, you’ve seen them all, and I can’t sit down and talk about anything serious over a few Jamesons with a damn baby!
FB isn’t the only offender, of course—it has many copycats—but it’s the biggest. Now Zuckerberg has even created a special feature for the “beautiful people”—streaming video for FB country club members. Will other users now be declared lower caste? Of course they will! Mr. Z likes people with money like him. Like Mr. Gates, Mr. Z is also a narcissist. He loves appearing on a stage with Mr. Christie and Mr. Booker as he beams while giving a tax write-off to the Newark school system. It’s a photo-optic feel-good moment for all concerned, and everyone will bask in his smirky, cherubic Alfred E. Newman smile, already having forgotten about how many people he’s screwed to get where he is.
But, to those other offenders. They abound on the internet because the internet provides the ultimate narcissistic experience. Google+, a competitor to FB; Pinterest, a competitor to both; YouTube; Twitter; LinkedIn; SnapChat; etc—they all provide narcissistic highs for their addicts, and all without drugs. Am I just old? Maybe. But it seems modesty and restraint have been replaced with self-promoting, boasting, electronic chest-thumping. The internet allows everyone to be the alpha male or female. People seem to feed on it. Is this a generational thing? Probably. Internet use tapers off if you go beyond Baby Boomers and increases going the other way. But it’s also an American psychosis.
I have yet to figure out what LinkedIn is really for. Many people have wanted to connect with me, but I’m not there because I have some self-mortifying desire, like that Opus Dei guy in The Da Vinci Code, to connect with a publisher, cover artist, PR and marketing people, or even people in the context of my old R&D or academic day-jobs. Except for the latter, many just want to sell me services I don’t want. I’ve been much more selective lately (I apologize if I’ve insulted you, but LinkedIn users who want to sell me something abound). I’m on LinkedIn because I like to lurk in the discussion groups related to the business of writing and sometimes comment. There are narcissists there too, of course, but most people are there because they are discussion groups. LinkedIn has some of the best from the writer’s perspective; Goodreads, my replacement for Facebook, has some of the best from the reader’s perspective.
Of course, a writer has a public persona. Readers want to know about authors and about their books. But this is another point of contention with me. Today almost anyone can write a book. It takes a lot more than a 140-character tweet or posting a comment or a pic on your space at a social media site. Forget the fact that Amazon reviews are basically just FB Likes. Forget the fact that the more books there are, the less chance a good author has to be “discovered.” Anyone can write a book, but should they? Narcissism seems to play a role here too. An English teacher X knows English, ergo s/he can write a book? Gregarious person Y tells a good story in a bar or other social setting, therefore s/he thinks she can write a book? And people, encouraging the narcissism, tell them to go ahead. Surprise, surprise, a version of Orwell’s famous phrase applies, “All writers are created equal, but some are more equal than others.”
This especially holds true in genre fiction and other forms of entertainment and leads me to often say to myself, “Huh? Where’s the story?” When I hear someone extolling the virtues of a book or a film as a character study, I cringe—it usually means there’s not much plot, if any. In spite of how many big-time writers act, writing should NOT be an expression of narcissism. The genre novel’s purpose isn’t about the author and his ego—it’s about entertainment, a recognition that avid readers want to be entertained and entertained well. That’s an unselfish attitude from the artist’s viewpoint, not an expression of narcissism. When you set out to write that great American novel, ask yourself for whom are you writing? If it isn’t for your love of storytelling, your time is better spent on Facebook with the other narcissists.
And, if you’re a reader, forego your narcissism, get off Facebook, and go read a book. It’s the good kind of soma because it won’t atrophy your mind.
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In elibris libertas….
