Narcissistic Society

The following sample essay on Narcissistic Society discusses it in detail, offering basic facts and pros and cons associated with it. To read the essay’s introduction, body and conclusion, scroll down.

Probably most of the people know the myth of Narcissus and about the dangers of falling in love with you. Narcissism commonly is used as a synonym of egotisms and excessive self-importance. In physiological terms egotism and narcissism can be different things, and narcissism springs from an opposite relationship with the self: not self-involvement, but disconnection with oneself.

In other words, the key to understand the myth of Narcissus is not that he fell in love him himself, but that he failed to recognize himself in his own reflection. The world of a narcissist is a mirror; he/she spends the life trying to reach the ideal-self, the beautiful image that hides the true feelings of loneliness and internal emptiness.

The modern narcissist seeks those reflections in television, Internet, magazines etc.

Television and some of the reality shows give an image of idyllic participant, beautiful, charming, powerful and free to do whatever he/she wants.[5] Nowadays, narcissistic behaviour is so obvious that we see it everywhere in our culture. It is even alarming that we live in an age where narcissistic behaviour is so evident. Ironically, one of the best ways for a narcissist to show himself/herself at the moment is – reality TV and we (society) initially like narcissists more because of their exploitative behaviour. Reality shows are perfect for them, because of their arrogant behaviour, self-confident and showy personalities.

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Synonym For Narcissist

In 2000 the reality programming shows exploded and many TV channels as well as mainstream networks created a shows like Big Brother, The Simple Life, Survivor and much more. There are many other different types of shows and mostly all of them share one characteristic: they exploit narcissistic behaviour for dramatic effect.[6] In a competition type of shows like The X Factor, American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen, The Apprentice, Top Model, etc. the participants do everything for supremacy and financial awards. It is debatable if their talent has much to do with their win, but it is certain that they get a reward for being ruthless, exploitative, authoritarian, and self-sufficient. It is almost impossible to imagine anyone without a heavy reserve of narcissism carrying on after a dressing-down from one of his or her acerbic judges.[7]

Show like Top Model focus on body image, following the contestants as they struggle over and over with their weight and appearance. Since of so much “stress” the participants usually give the audience bad behaviour, when they break down or on the contrary scheme conspire to grab every advantage of it. It is known that almost none of the scenes of the show are filmed when nothing is happening; the camera usually appears when there is a drama. These shows invite the audience to indulge it’s own narcissistic feelings of superiority, whether by jeering at the TV screen or by posting a commentary on the shows’ websites[8].

Dating competition shows like The Bachelor or Joe Millionaire combine all of the previous shows qualities with more emphasis of duplicity. The prize of this show is a Man, who is known to be very attractive, fascinating, and sometimes even vulnerable. On the television those types of figures become idealized even if in real life they are unsuccessful or egotistical, in other words full of narcissistic characteristics.

The shows like The Simple Life, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica or Hogan Knows Best invite the audience to enter and to understand every day life of celebrities. The aim of these shows is to display celebrities being themselves, in other words, to document how narcissistic personalities cope with every day life. The viewers become grateful and don’t even pay the attention what is really happening in the show, because the “IT” celebrity gave an opportunity and flattered the viewers by letting them into their world. The biggest problem with this type of show is that the young viewers get confused with what is normal and what is not. In one of the episodes in the show Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Jessica asked a question: “Is this chicken what I have or is it fish? I know its tuna, but why than it says chicken? (Chicken of The Sea is a brand)”[9].

The episode and the question received hundreds of comments, public and media attention, not because it was an unintelligent question, but because the audience felt a connection with the protagonist. Since it received so many feedback Jessica made a public statement saying that she’s just a normal human who sometimes makes mistakes. The audience “went wild” because they felt that she’s just like them and by that time it didn’t matter that she is multimillionaire recording artist. According to that, the message that is told to the society seems to be one: don’t be ashamed of you are. The phrase that always is an answer to all misunderstandings.

Most of the narcissistic qualities: extreme arrogance, sense of specialness, vanity, jealousy, and entitlement, appear in “diva shows” like My Super Sweet 16, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane and Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The shows about the celebrities (who in reality are known for being famous just for being famous) let and show all the viewers, who ever dreamed of fame or wealth that it could be theirs simply by demanding it[10]. The participants are known as narcissists, which just let the viewers to become ones as well.

The people who succeed on these shows appear to have little knowledge of education or hard work. Instead, they manipulate, act out while living their known fabulous lives. The show Dr. 90210, The Swan or I Want a Famous Face, glorify the “improvement” of the body, by any means necessary. These shows might motivate some viewers to make some positive changes in their lives but in general it glories the narcissistic view of body image.

However, all of these shows have one function, to entertain. Entertainment programs occupy a bigger part of our daily life, while reducing the attention that we give to news programs or documentaries. There is a greater tendency to choose this new type of television genre, because of its required minimum interpretation, appealing messages and easy understanding. The influence of these shows is massive and it is alarming because it makes narcissism seem completely normal.

This narcissism bug has bitten young people, who live in this narcissistic society, and when asked what are your goals in life they answered: “becoming famous”. Every man, however hopeless his pretensions may appear, has some project by which he hopes to rise to reputation; some art by which he imagines that the attention of the world will be attracted; some quality, good or bad, which discriminates him from the common herd of mortals, and by which others may be persuaded to love, or compelled to fear him.[11]