Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClear Science (emphasis ours),
There’s a strong case to be made that since the end of World War II, Americans have grown increasingly narcissistic on average – more entitled, with an inflated sense of self-importance.
Psychologists Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell are most responsible for collecting data and creating a narrative to support this claim. According to the duo, the rise began with the Baby Boomers, who grew up in an era of relative ease and plenty after their grandparents endured a Great Depression and their parents soldiered and sacrificed through World War II. By the time they were college-aged, Boomers eschewed the collectivist mindset of their elders in favor of individualism.
The trend continued with Boomers’ kids. As Dennis Shen wrote for the London School of Economics’ Phelan United States Centre, “One study comparing teenagers found that while only 12% of those aged 14-16 in the early 1950s agreed with the statement “I am an important person”, 77% of boys and more than 80% of girls of the same cohort by 1989 agreed with it.”
And, of course, the rise in narcissism has persisted since. In 2008, Twenge published a study comparing college students’ scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory scale to scores from students in 1979, finding that levels of narcissism had risen roughly 30 percent.
Additional research has evinced this increase. “59% of American college freshmen rated themselves above average in intellectual self-confidence in 2014, compared with 39% in 1966,” Shen wrote.
Owing to the elevated prevalence of social media services over the past decade, it’s highly likely that the rise in narcissism has only accelerated of late. We see it on Twitter, where users flock to share their ‘brilliant’ opinions. We see it on Instagram and TikTok, where people carefully curate their online personas. We also see it in traditional media sources, where elite-educated journalists often make themselves the story and focus on tending their Twitter profiles. Narcissism also reigns on television news. Gone are the days of humble correspondents and “just the facts” anchors, replaced by talking heads and opinionated hosts more interested in their ratings than the truth.
Of course, while narcissism has risen, that doesn’t mean we are all narcissists. It exists both as a trait, which is on a spectrum, and a personality disorder, which is much more extreme and debilitating. Narcissistic personality disorder has actually remained fairly stable in the U.S. over the past decades. This means that the average American is more self-centered than they used to be, but decidedly not stuck in their own head.
What are the wider effects of this psychological transition? As Shen speculated, partisanship has exploded as people have grown more enamored with their own beliefs and less open to others’. Debt-financed conspicuous consumption “to elevate one’s status in front of others, rather than out of necessity” has risen. And an increasing disdain for government could partly be attributed to a focus on somewhat arrogant self-sufficiency.
There is also another way to look at the rise in narcissism – as a defense mechanism. Narcissism is often driven by low self-esteem and insecurity. Since the 1950s, wealth inequality has risen, cost of living has exploded, especially for housing, and puchasing power has stagnated. Combine these economic pressures with the competitive, pressure-filled media environment since the turn of the century and you have a recipe for a rise in narcissism. And sadly, narcissism is linked to elevated hostility and aggression towards others. One hopes that Americans can find a way to cool their collective narcissism before it boils over.
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I find this to be true indeed. I work in a field where people make decent money and it brings out the worse of the worse. One day it is people going back and forth about how big their house is. Next day it is how fast their car is (or as of late how long their $75,000 electric car can go without a charge). These people are far from humble it is if they strive on trying to be better than everyone.
I made the mistake one day of getting in a conversation about dogs. You would think dogs would be a topic everybody would laugh and joke about. Instead it turned into a cock waving contest with “Well my dog can do this, and that” … “Oh cool, well my dog can do that, and this” …. blah blah blah. I stopped talking and left the conversation.
I refuse to be like that. I admit I used to have some of those traits. Now I can give two flying fucks what anyone thinks of me or the shit I have. Listening to these people blabber on I find I don’t want the shit they have. They are in debt up to their eye balls and really own nothing anyway. Overall they are miserable. I guess I find a sense of pride in knowing I own both my vehicles while they pay $800 a month for a gas guzzler to show off. To each their own I guess.
Win-Though most do not have a clue debt is a persons greatest enemy. I spent the first half of my adult life in that trap and the second half enjoying the blessings of freedom from servitude to the banksters. At the end of each month I clear leftover money in my checking account by converting it to cash as it lets me control my finances. It is many times easier to hand your plastic to someone as hand them some $100 bills. I spend far less this way as the credit system way.
You should see MY dog. He is amazing!!!
Yes, it’s always OUR fault.
Us, the MASSES they’re always talking about.
Psych war.
Narcissism should be outlawed. 🙂
GNL-That would be great! No politicians!
I don’t know if this is necessarily narcissism per se, but more of a totally lack of privacy and boundaries.
Example:
I was a chain restaurant yesterday with my boyfriend. We sat at the bar. Youngish bartender, probably about 23-25 year old woman. Obese. Big ear hole thingys in her ears. Tattoos. Big giant fake eyelashes. Weird glasses.
She proceeds to tell us, completely unprompted, about her entire freaking life. Her grandparents camp on the Cape and in Maine. How she is not, and I quote, “necessarily a skinny girl” (this woman was EASILY 300 pounds and stood about 5’9″), how she doesn’t really talk to her dad’s side of the family anymore.
I kept trying to be polite, just kind of ‘um hmmm’ her and turned my body towards my BF as a clue we were all set with the chat, but nope…she plowed on. Her dislike of tomatoes…raw, not cooked mind you, because she will eat them in salsa, just not raw pieces on a sandwich. How the bartender last night didn’t stock the bar or clean….
She truly felt all she said was worth hearing by 2 perfect strangers. That it was completely normal to talk to us like we were regulars and saw her once or twice a week or knew her outside of this venue.
She was oblivious to body language, and that a couple might just want to be left alone to talk amongst themselves.
Some would say narcissism. And it might be. But I have found anyone under 30 shares every aspect of their life on social media ALL THE GODDAMN TIME. No matter what it is. Dating. Sex. Pets. Illness. Food. Kids. They just put it all out there for the entire world to see and comment on. So they think that the same holds true in the real world.
It’s not. On social media, I have a choice to either not even look at your bullshit, or just scroll through it quickly. In real life, you are there, a foot from my face, flapping your pie hole with a complete snooze fest of completely irrelevant factoids about you, who I don’t know, and your whole family who I also do not know.
Of course, these kids got participation trophies, were told they are “valued” and their feelings “matter”.
Update kids. You are not valued by anyone except your family, and even some of them are just going through the motions.
Your feelings are also not valued by anyone except, and this is 100% true:
1. Your mom and probably your dad
2. Most likely your siblings depending on how big the age spreaad
3. Your significant other. Hopefully
4. Your Nana and Pop Pop
5. Your bestie. If you’re a woman. A guy? Probably not.
The people who 100% DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS, but are often paid or punished or incentivized to do so:
1. Your boss
2. Your teachers
3. Your step-parent if married to your biological parent when you were over 13
4. Much older/much younger siblings
5. Your car repair tech
6. The lady at Dunkin’ Donuts/McDonalds/Burger King/KFC/Taco Bell/Food delivery person/Uber or Lyft driver, basically anyone who works anywhere and has to interact with you in some capacity
7. The Town/State you live in.
8. Police
9. Firefighters
10. Local and State Politicians
11. Your friends from High School that you haven’t seen in more than 2 years.
12. The lady at the college admissions office
13. The lady at the college bursar’s office
I could go on. But as you can see, the list of “we care” versus “don’t give a shit” is much shorter.
If you could just go do your job, go about your day, and remember that 99.99 percent of the people you interact with every day don’t know you, don’t care about you, and would absolutely not shed one damn tear if you died right in front of them, you’ll be a happier person and not annoy the living shit out of the rest of us.
That is all.
realestate—Thanks for typing in my thoughts using your precious time! I was thinking about putting in a very similar rant.
Boundaries don’t exist in the collectivist mindset. Maybe that’s why so few under 40 (or under 50?) care about maintaining strong national borders.
Narcissists are not able to see outside of themselves, they don’t understand or acknowledge other points of view. They see the world only as how it affects them personally.
Nice rant. I think you’d be miserable in Texas. People love to give you their life story in the checkout line at the store. Not only that, but they love to hug you too. No joke! Total strangers will tell me they feel like they’ve known me forever, but I think it’s because I listen to them (held captive in line, so kinda have to), because at the end of the conversation they really don’t know anything about me.
The people here are genuinely nice, so I try to endure, but I do completely relate to your post. In our messed up world, I think people just want to feel heard and cared for….a basic human need that is coming across as narcissism.
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. ~ George Bernard Shaw
Saw that quirt-quip just recently, somewhere. Social noise eliciting positive reinforcement is so contingent that the noise is almost beside the point.
Makes sense.
You left out a big one:
14. Your doctor.
I like talking to narcissists, especially if we talk about me.
You get the toleration award for Tuesday Stuckey!
Sounds like you need to put out the flying monkey sign-up sheet
are you talking to the man in the mirror?
No, that man is soooo vain!!
The greatest deterrent to narcissism is repentance and total faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As men comparing ourselves to men we can get quite uppity. When you compare yourself to the perfect holy Creator of the universe man doesn’t measure up to much. Trust Christ as Savior as the rewards are truly out of this world.
(front) Sigh/t…
Boomers eschewed collectivist elders in favor of the even more elder throw-rugged individualism of the not narcy manifest destiny soaked in flambé American exceptionalism.
Gimme a break. Fat heads staring with gob smacked love-neurosis into muddy water hoof prints ain’t nuthin new – “that’s vanity” to say or write or “expose.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK2fKKr_BLw
These authors seem to define “narcissism” as individualism, and collectivism as the opposite of “narcissism”
They can take their collectivist ideology and their collectivist redefinitions and shove ’em up their collective asses.
Remember, there’s no shortage of collectivist a-holes out there who would claim you suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder if you don’t mask up or if you don’t get boosted.
NPD is a near perfect descriptor for leftist ideologues and, especially, virtue-signalling SJWs. This was observed many years ago, and the slow-witted leftists are just now getting around to trying to turn the tables and call anyone who doesn’t virtue-signal alongside them a narcissist. Nice try.
There is so much wrong with this article I don’t have time to write an entire essay about the problems with it.
These authors seem to define “narcissism” as individualism, and collectivism as the opposite of “narcissism”
They can take their collectivist ideology and their collectivist redefinitions and shove ’em up their collective asses.
Remember, there’s no shortage of collectivist a-holes out there who would claim you suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder if you don’t mask up or if you don’t get boosted.
NPD is a near perfect descriptor for leftist ideologues and, especially, virtue-signalling SJWs. This was observed many years ago, and the slow-witted leftists are just now getting around to trying to turn the tables and call anyone who doesn’t virtue-signal alongside them a narcissist. Nice try.
i just can’t believe i wasn’t mentioned in the article.