Formative!

Today we had to present our formative to people that sit on our table. My was quite short... I found it very difficult to start it, but then again that's how it was last year, however as soon as I start it it just goes off and I end up writing it in like a day.. insane.

Presentation -

I would show it you, but I'm still trying to figure out how to uploaded it on here... if anyone knows. PLEASE LET ME KNOW! thanks.

Feedback -

I didn't have a lot of theory so the people around me kept saying theory, theory, theory which obviously makes sense, but then again I haven't started my essay..

Other comments I had was to narrow down the question, so my question was before -

Why and how does narcissism helps us survive?

I narrowed it down to -

Why narcissism helps us survive?

The reason for that is because in the essay itself I will be answering the HOW. I had people mentioning to maybe talk about celebrity and give examples of celebrities that are narcissism like Kanye West maybe. People also gave me the idea of either looking at how that links to technology or psychology. To be honest it was a good day, I had some good feedback which also motivated me to actually start the essay.

The essay so far -

Why narcissism helps us survive?

The 21st century is the most narcissistic generation so far. We are the ultimate self – centred people that have ever existed. As Samantha Smithstein mentions in the Psychology Today Magazine (2010) we are the “iGeneration” and that we are the “narcissism epidemic”. The youth is all about taking selfies and looking pretty, not just for ourselves, but also for the online world. iGeneration is very much about losing your youth in order to get attention and feel important. Being a narcissist means we are self – centred, and it is the pursuit of gratification from things such as; vanity, selfish admiration and other. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” (Fig. 1) In 1983, even though mirrors weren’t always seen as a positive in history as some people related mirrors to magic, we always ended going to them when we seek the need for compliments. As the Snow-White Disney movie shows us, in 1983 we were already showing the world how to become narcissistic and how to boost our self – esteem by being egoistic, selfish and admired.

Figure 1. Snow White, the Queen and the Magic Mirror (2015)

Narcissism started way back in the day, however it wasn’t as noticeable as it is now. Holly Brubach talks in The New York Times magazine (2009) about Heinz Kohut, the psychoanalytic theorist, identified the narcissistic personality disorder in 1971 and by 1980, it was included in the DSM - III, the official catalogue of psychiatric disorders. Twenge and Campbell Marshal statistics, charts, polls and many other researches show the complete picture of the epidemic’s current state of contagion, mainly brought by the Internet or from reality television and the booming economy (Fig. 2). Personally, I agree with this statement. As a young adult like myself, who have grown, and developed in the 21st century and the era of technology, I see the difference in communications and developments between the eras.

Figure 2. ‘Twenge, Campbell & Gentile/American Freshman Survey’ (2013)

People born in 1930s early 1940s like my grandparents still find their way around the world without the use of technology. In their house, noticeably, there are a lot less mirrors than at home. When I think of narcissism, I always connect it to mirrors because narcissism itself for me means self – love. What other way could you love yourself other than seeing yourself in the mirror and noticing the goodness. I have grown up around toys that have built in mirrors (Fig. 3) with shops all around me that have reflections, phones everywhere which were used for distractions to stop me crying, big television screens also seen as black screens when they were switched off which was a way of seeing a reflection of myself. I was growing up being narcissistic without my parents seeing it.

“Mirrors help to promote self – awareness, and to babies and young children they present “Hello Me”. Mirrors are ideal to open a window of discussion and communication, to encourage inquisitive minds, stimulate curiosity, visual scanning, tracing and focusing, and to look at our wonderful world that bit closer.” – says, sensorytoywarehouse.com. Nowadays we want our kids to grow up being beautiful and smart at the same time. Almost like creating the perfect child. It’s not just from technology we make our kids be narcissistic, it’s also from our marketing and selling points. Markets promote self – awareness, sense of self, self - discovery, visual scanning and focusing, everything that stimulate curiosity and creates narcissism. Which links perfectly with Sigmund Freud and his theory of believing that “… events in our childhood have a great influence on our adult lives, shaping our personality.” as McLeod talks about in this article (2018).

Figure 3. ‘Baby Toy - Floor Mirror – Powder Done By Deer’ (2016)

Even though this might be considered as a negative factor, being narcissistic has boost our creative and work load after years of promoting narcissistic products such as; make-up, mirrors, technology, etc. Nicola Brown (2016) talks about how “recent studies from The European Journal of Finance, show that narcissism was positively correlated with the market performance of their artworks.” – “Using a massive data set of over 400,000 artists, including the likes of Picasso, Dali, and Van Gogh, Zhou found that one standard deviation increases in narcissism increased the market price by 16 percent. The study also found that narcissistic artists held more solo and group exhibitions and sold larger paintings for more money than less narcissistic artists.” After all, narcissism isn’t as bad as people blame it to be. Narcissism leads to creativity and productivity with insightful applications for how it can influence business performance.

TO BE CONTINUED... possibly changed a bit too..