‘My true church is a whorehouse–the only one that gives me true satisfaction.’ –Georges Bataille
Researcher Soraya Mehdizadeh (2010) proposes that sites like Facebook and MySpace have contributed to the rise of narcissistic tendencies. (…)
She defines narcissists as individuals who seek superficial relationships with high status individuals who can contribute to public glory (2010: 358). Online social networking sites encourage these sorts of relationships:
First, this setting offers a gateway for hundreds of shallow relationships (i.e., virtual friends), and emotionally detached communication (i.e., wall posts, comments). While these sites do indeed serve a communicative purpose among friends, colleagues, and family, other registered users can initiate requests to be friends, and one’s social network often snowballs rapidly across institutions in this fashion.
One way this sort of relationship is achieved is through the presentation of an attractive self—the user must reveal something that encourages the connection.
This connection may be emotionally appealing (e.g., a shared history: attending the same high school or college) or physically appealing (e.g., an enticing photo, a pleasant demeanor).
The latter seems particularly important once the user moves past first tier connections and begins to add connections from the second tier (i.e., friend of a friend) and beyond. According to Mehdizadeh, this opens the door for a showing of the “hoped for possible self,” which “emphasizes realistic socially desirable identities an individual would like to establish given the right circumstances.”
photo { Milos Gazdic }
