Scientists claim that narcissism prevails in young people and frequently blame social networks for it. For the last few decades, teenagers must have changed the perception of themselves so that narcissistic personality traits are as frequent as symptoms of obesity. School psychologists claim that modern students are much more egocentric than their parents’ generation which can be explained by their way of life. In the first place, adults who became more affluent than their parents spoil their kids with gifts and cannot refuse to their whims. Putting a child in the center of everything is natural, but the inability to say “no” greatly contributes to narcissism. And, of course, social networks enhance selfishness as they allow teenagers to promote themselves among friends.
Narcissistic personalities find social networks very helpful. They target at increasing the number of their friends online, frequently update their status, and regularly upload new selfies. The contribution of social media is vast as once the picture is taken with a smartphone, users immediately upload them to Instagram and share the link on Facebook and Twitter as well. Teenagers expect their friends to be interested in what they are doing and use Facebook to provide recent updates. In most cases, teenagers strive to look important, influential, and beautiful. They frequently place pictures of celebrities as their profile photo to create the vision of perfection. Young people also take care that their photos are properly edited to look as perfect as never in real life.
Perhaps, social media cannot ingrain narcissism as it forms within the family environment at an early age. But the fact that social media enhance personalities to develop more self-centered is certain.