January 16, 2014

"What you find in real life with narcissists is that they’re very good at gaining friends and becoming leaders..."

"... but eventually people see through them and stop liking them."
"Online, people are very good at gaining relationships, but they don’t fall off naturally. If you’re incredibly annoying, they just ignore you, and even then it might be worth it for entertainment value. There’s a reason why, on reality TV, you find high levels of narcissism. It’s entertaining."
Is that true? On-line relationships don't fall off naturally?

12 comments:

Scott said...

Narcissism is a universal human personality trait. No one is devoid of it.

So at what level does the dominance of this trait cause a person to be labeled a "narcissist" or a "non-narcissist?" Does the author really mean a "malignant narcissist?" The author describes the trait and introduces the term without identifying the criteria for the label, so we don't know.

The article is a lot of blather.

Freeman Hunt said...

I see that you selected a particularly attractive broccoli picture for your avatar, Scott. Hmmm.

Ipso Fatso said...

How many of your favorite commenters from years past are no longer around? Seems to me that could be a natural fall off.

Scott said...

I really like you, Freeman Hunt. I do.

campy said...

"... but eventually people see through them and stop liking them."

Sometimes the narcissist makes it past all the elections he needs before that happens.

Wince said...

It’s not hard to see why the Internet would be a good cave for a narcissist to burrow into. Generally speaking, they prefer shallow relationships (preferably one-way, with the arrow pointing toward themselves), and need outside sources to maintain their inflated but delicate egos. So, a shallow cave that you can get into, but not out of. The Internet offers both a vast potential audience, and the possibility for anonymity, and if not anonymity, then a carefully curated veneer of self that you can attach your name to.

The MSM is the narcissist Obama's "cave".

Freeman Hunt said...

I mostly only see very young people posting scads of pictures of themselves and making attention-seeking posts. Perhaps they all grow out of it.

I'm with Scott. What level of narcissism are we talking about? The common narcissism of youth or narcissism as a mental health disorder?

Scott said...

I found a website that caters to narcissists! www.chaturbate.com (extremely NSFW)

mccullough said...

With Facebook, I do wonder about the people with 1,233 "friends."

Ann Althouse said...

"How many of your favorite commenters from years past are no longer around? Seems to me that could be a natural fall off."

Go back in the archive 7 or 8 years and read some comments threads. You'll see all sorts of people who aren't around around anymore. Some made a show of leaving, but many simply fell off. That's very real on line for me.

RecChief said...

is this why Obama's poll numbers are dropping?

TMink said...

Only charming narcissists are attractive. For the other kind I give you Perez Hilton.

Trey