Enough About Me. What Do You Think of Me? Study Suggests Social Media Is for Narcissists

August 26th, 2009 • Identity, Studies & Research

Gen Y really is “Gen Me,” as suggested by a San Diego State University study. The study, conducted by Jean Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at SDSU, and Youth Pulse LLC, goes on to conclude that Gen Ys are narcissistic: focused only on themselves and incapable of acknowledging or appreciating others’ points of view or circumstances. Nearly 60 percent of college students polled by SDSU agreed their age group uses social networking sites for narcissistic, self-promoting and attention-seeking reasons.

“College students have clearly noticed the more self-centered traits of their peers — it’s fascinating how honest they are about diagnosing their generation’s downsides,” Twenge said. “And students are right about the influence of social networking sites — research has shown that narcissistic people thrive on sites like Facebook, where self-centered people have more friends and post more attractive pictures of themselves.”

Ninety-two percent of students who took the poll said they use MySpace or Facebook regularly, and 84 percent said they go online several times each day.

Detractors criticize Y’s (individuals born between 1980 and 2000) as products of a misguided parenting movement designed to buffer children from the negative effects of competition and build self-esteem — an approach, they argue, that has filled them with false self-confidence. Some claim that self-esteem without achievement to back it up has produced an unmotivated and self-aggrandizing generation.

What do you think? Are Gen Ys really narcissistic?

Tags: facebook, Gen Y, MySpace, San Diego State University, Youth Pulse LLC

Trackback URI.

3 Responses (Add Your Comment)

1. Toronto Louise August 26, 2009

   at 1:20 pm

   I have read Dr. Twenge's book, Generation Me and discuss this topic when I do etiquette training. I don't think an entire generation can be tarred with the same brush and I work with many millenials who are polite and empathetic. But, I agree that the self-esteem movement, so popular with boomer parents, has some potentially negative side effects. Learning to work your way up through an office environment can be tough for someone who, up until now, was under the impression they were the centre of the universe. Another academic who writes on this topic, Dr. P.M. Forni at Johns Hopkins, claims some people have been raised in a "cage of narcissism" that employers need to liberate them from.

2. Lynn Eastep September 10, 2009

   at 9:33 pm

   Thank you so much for your insightful comments!

   Regarding working with Gen Y, there's the whole "Heliocopter Parents" phenomena to describe those moms and dads who hover over children in college and swoop into their academic affairs.

   As the children of "Helicopter parents" graduate and move into the job market, these Gen Yers have to adjust their behavior to be appropriate for the workplace. (I actually had a former intern stomp, cry and call her mom because I asked her to make photocopies, which she felt was "beneath" her.)

   I love the phrase "cage of narcissism". I'll have to read Dr. Forni's work.

3. Ginger September 12, 2009

   at 4:42 pm

   To Lynn,

   I worked with a surgeon who was utterly bemused when his daughter, a recent veterinary school grad who had begun her internship and was living in another state called him with an emotional appeal.

   What was her request? That he call her boss (the veterinarian overseeing her internship) and tell him to stop being mean to her.

   He declined, and it was all I could do to keep from howling with laughter when he told me the story.

Leave a Reply