THE NEW PEEP CULTURE
Do selfies represent an apogee of narcissism or are they a future art form, Lin Sampson wonders
THE rampaging hordes of selfemployed, unemployed or overemployed sociologists, anthropologists and other academic riff-raff have alighted on the social network sites.
Their grave, head-down research papers are arriving as thick and fast as driving snow: “Facebook makes you sad, Twitter makes you bad.”
The shakedown of social network sites is equal in quantity only to the absolute pervasiveness of social networks themselves.
Conjuring up the dark side of Facebook and Twitter is a lot easier than living with cannibals in the Caribbean, but is this research worth a plugged nickel?
In March last year, Western Illinois University professor Christopher Carpenter published a study, Narcissism on Facebook: Self-Promotional and AntiSocial Behaviour in the journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.
Carpenter believes there is a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a “socially disruptive” narcissist. Duh? No, don’t ask me how he came to this conclusion, read the paper.
Participants completed a questionnaire to assess personality. Results showed a significant correlation between narcissistic personality and frequent use of social network sites. These sites “offer a gateway for hundreds of shallow relationships and emotionally detached communication”, Carpenter opined.
A just-published study by the University of Michigan endorsed the view that people with narcissistic personalities used Twitter as their own personal megaphone.
Then a study published on Plos One (“a peer-reviewed, open access journal”) found Facebook use led to declines in moment-to-moment happiness and overall life satisfaction.
“This is because people, other than very close friends and relatives, don’t seem to relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves,” wrote Dr David Houghton of Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University.
However, even the redoubtable Dr H admits that “specific correlations between each type of relationship and each type of picture” are “a bit messy to be summarised”.
Research has become the trashcan of history, taking up valuable hard-drive space, and frequently coming up with eccentric if not downright faulty conclusions. Social networks have millions of online users; the samples tested are seldom more than a couple of hundred.
Further ammunition for the idea that social network sites are dangerous comes from tabloid fodder about the number of suicides connected with online activity. Sadly, a lot of young people committed suicide long before social networks; I have been unable to find a statistical comparison.
It is true that the engines of all social network sites are stoked by endless selfpromotion and schmoozing, a blunderbuss of backslapping. Examined carefully, many posts have a subtext of “see how clever I am, how many friends I’ve got, see how famous and important I am and how caring”. It is not difficult to discern many agendas at work.
Log on to Twitter, type in #selfies (taking a photo of yourself with your iPhone) and watch as a stream of photo links appear. Blondes in crayon-coloured beach wear, shady-looking men in kaftans, battle-scarred journos, a body with tattoos and pink nappy pins through the nipples, all with something to say about me, me, me.
Sarah Britten, who tags herself on Twitter as artist/animal-lover/individual, says: “Selfies are challenging because you are limited by the length of your arm, but you have control over what you look like. So they are completely narcissistic.”
Men have jumped the wagon with real naked selfies. “Hi im male. If u wish your pic to be posted please feel free to submit your pics or vids to Realnakedselfes@gmail.com girls only or kik me @ ruder rudestill.” However, streamed together these selfies turn the topsoil of youth culture and conjure images of a world that is changing by the picosecond.
The interesting thing about social networking is that it is self-policing; anyone who posts too many selfies gets told, “am sick of your selfies, get some day work or stop posting selfies of you sleeping”.
Come on, consensus is surely possible here? Selfies are just a bit of fun, a riotous reflection of online culture. We don’t need the gravel-faced milieu of mediocre academia to explain the intense psychology that lies behind it. How harmful can a bit of graphic small-talking be, and why not use contemporary forces to awaken trends and track history?
One day soon selfies will be coming to an art gallery near you. In the meantime, remember that if it hurts or you feel bullied, all you have to do is switch off.
A lot of young people committed suicide long before social networks