Social networks and the “selfie disease”: if the real problem is vanity

If we are people who are very active on social networks, then maybe we have
happened to perceive our rapport with these tools is not entirely balanced.

Maybe we have spent time with dear friends and snapped photos more with the
idea in mind to post them and let others see (to gain approval, make others
envious, or simply stay at the center of attention), rather than immortalizing
a beautiful memory, to keep and dust off in the future.

Facebook or Instagram – just to cite some heavily used social media
networks – are tools for sharing. And what should be wrong with letting
your friends know how you are spending your free time and with whom? Why
should it be a negative thing to show what you’re doing and the places that
we hold closest to our hearts?

The problem comes when the “craving for sharing” reaches pathological
levels, when being on Facebook, for example, becomes more
important than being with those around us and being seen counts
more than having genuine friendships.

In the article

If the tools designed to communicate become an obstacle to
communication

we talked about a risk: that the tools designed to encourage sharing,
friendship, solidarity, lead us, on the contrary, to be more distant with
each other, to watch each other in suspicion, or to ignore each other
altogether.

And in this regard we must admit that sometimes, with our profiles we do
everything, less than sharing, using them as accessories to nurture vanity
and self-centeredness.

The “selfie disease”

A professor of sociology once said: “In the past, when tourists came to
Rome they took pictures at the Colosseum or at the Trevi Fountain. Today,
monuments are barely shown in the background. What matters is that we are
in the picture, that we can say to our circle of friends, with a simple
click, ‘I’ve been there.'”

Maybe because we want to provoke jealousy – make others believe that we are
luckier, more beautiful, happier?

Maybe we want an ego boost, to fulfill a sense of pride or simply silence
our insecurities and fear of being inferior to others?

Whatever the answer, if the spirit of sharing means less, mechanisms for
nothing positive come into play, of which we have spoken in the article

The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Networks.

Obviously, the abuse of the selfie is just the tip of the iceberg. When it
comes to vices, the problem is always in the human heart.

Demonizing the selfie trend, especially popular to the youth, is not the
solution. The approach to the tool has to change. We must therefore be
careful not to use it to the point it becomes a “disease,” where we wish to
appear in the image at any cost.

When we realize that we are exaggerating, when we realize that the camera
roll of photos and our social profiles are “clogged” with photos that
portray only ourselves, maybe it’s time to stop posing, to open ourselves
to others and “go back to looking at what is around us.”

Social Networks and Narcissism

Narcissists need to show themselves and appear in photos because they are
not happy with who they are: giving a positive self-image helps them
compensate for the frustration they feel for not liking themselves. This
mechanism is generated by an affective emptiness, by the lack of love and
attention.

If we look around (and, above all, inside…), we will not find it
difficult to discover narcissistic tendencies in many people we know… and
in ourselves.

A thorough analysis of the narcissistic disorder (see

Narcissism is a psychological disorder and has nothing to do with
selfies

) reveals, however – apart from “tendencies” more or less pronounced- that
those who are suffering from a real pathology (treatable, therefore, with
therapy) are not the majority of people, but rather only 6%.

And social media, often accused of nourishing narcissism, what role do they
play?

The aforementioned article offers us an unexpected answer: “The social
media structure now influences our life to the point of feeding the already
existing narcissistic tendencies – providing what is called ‘narcissistic
supply’ – but real narcissism is much more disturbing to than just some
selfies.”

The most common problem? Vanity

According to these scholars, there is not a close link between social
networks and narcissism. And narcissism, understood as a pathology that
cannot be cured by oneself, plagues only a small part of the population.

Yet, how often do we take advantage of a social network just to show off?

Well, here the information of this study makes us infer that most of us
have a defect that can be corrected: vanity.

With a little – perhaps a lot – of commitment, we can get past our
self-centeredness.

But where do we start? For example, by ceasing to consider social media as
showcases and starting to see them as windows to the world…

The other is not a “like distributor”

When we approach a social network the real obstacle to be removed is our
vanity. We must work to “decentralize ourselves,” aware that we are in a
square and not in front of the mirror.

Be it when we are online or offline, we should remember that being with
others, listening to others, appreciating them, is much more beautiful than
“using them” for our own self-assertion.

Seeing a friend on Facebook only as a “like distributor,” which helps one
to feel superior, has nothing to do with real friendship

Yet true friendship can make us much, much happier than putting each other
on pedestals.