Is Technology Turning Our Kids Into Narcissists?

Building self-esteem in kids is such an important part of growing happy and empowered young adults. But what happens when good self-esteem tips over into narcissistic tendencies?

New research conducted by the San Diego State University has suggested that young people today have more narcissistic tendencies than those on the 1980’s and 1990’s and the questions posed is, why?

San Diego State University’s Professor Jean Twenge has teamed up with Professor Keith Campbell to publish their research in a new book called, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. The book examines the rise of narcissism in society and in particular, amongst young people.

The study was based around the Narcissistic Personality Inventory – a test developed in 1998 that measures narcissistic tendencies. Professors Twenge and Campbell looked at data from over 15,000 American Uni students that had taken the Inventory test before 2006. Looking at the data, they uncovered that there was a correlation between the birth year of the respondents and their narcissism score – with the scores significantly higher in respondents in the 2000’s than they were in the previous two decades.

While the researchers acknowledge that self-absorption and narcissistic tendencies are part of the normal development of young people, the results suggested that narcissism was far more rampant now than in previous generations.

But is technology to blame for this rise on narcissism? Well, partially. According to the study, the main underlying cause of increasing narcissism is materialism and the increasing focus on money, fame and image. Professor Twenge sees easy credit (access to more money to create a better image of oneself through material possessions), celebrity culture (with the focus on image rather than achievement) and the Internet (which allows people to seek attention and fame for themselves) as drivers to the rise in narcissism.

In relation to social media, Professor Twenge says that there are many studies that correlate individuals with high narcissistic tendencies have more friends of Facebook, but that this does not mean that everyone on Twitter and Facebook is high in narcissism. However, narcissists have greater skill in online connections, so are more likely to have a greater amount of friends on social media.

Do you think young people are more narcissistic today? What do you think is the greatest cause of this?

Source : parents[dot]nickjr[dot]com[dot]au