Let me Take a Selfie

Likes one gets per photo is a dangerous game, and becomes difficult not to think about the inevitable crash when the likes stop flowing in. Narcissism is blinding. Narcissists choose to refuse to receive any criticism and believe that they have reached their peak in perfection. Both of these qualities sound a lot like Donald Trump. In “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”, a book published by Bandy X. Lee in October 27th, psychiatrists and mental health experts describe the president’s severe personality disorder.

“His behavior and way of dealing with others by simply just dividing the world into good and evil is a typical symptom of this disorder” stated psychotherapist, Barbel Wardetzki, while talking about narcissistic personality disorder (qtd. in Vergin).

Trump claims he knows more about ISIS than the generals and that among all the human beings on the planet, he alone can fix it. A narcissist just doesn’t see the world objectively as do “normal” people, but as a place to impose their distorted perspective as far and as wide as they think they must. This makes them, at the very least, obnoxious to be around and, at worst, extremely dangerous to have around. By allowing one to take office, especially of a large and powerful country, there are the makings of another war, if not a world war. People take selfies because they have an excessive interest in their appearance. To inspect and observe the relationship between selfies and personality, Jesse Fox and Margaret C. Rooney of the Ohio State department of communications utilized data they retrieved from a diverse sample of a thousand men all between eighteen and forty years old. Applicants completed personality surveys gauging their self-objectification. They were asked how many selfies they had taken and posted on social media in the last week and how much time they spent on social media sites.

Results disclosed that both narcissism and self-objectification were associated with spending more time on social networking sites and picture editing softwares. Posting numerous selfies was related to both higher narcissism and psychopathy, controlling for the overall number of other types of photos posted. The study suggested that narcissists are more likely to show off with selfies and make extra effort to look their best in these photos. Narcissists also portray extreme confidence. An example of an tremendous portrayal of confidence is none other than Kim Kardashian West. Kim Kardashian West is an actress, socialite, model, businesswoman, and television star. Recently, many people have queried if she is narcissistic, especially after her book “Selfish” was published in May of 2015. Originally, she created this selfie book for her husband, Kayne West, as a gift, but decided it would be a misfortune if every other human on this planet didn’t see it as well (Hahn).

Truth be told, Kardashian is the queen of social media and has said she took 6,000 selfies during her four-day vacation in Mexico in August. It is estimated that she takes 1,500 selfies per day, 62.5 selfies an hour and about one selfie every minute. Any person who takes such an extreme amount of selfies must be narcissistic and have a lot of memory on their phone. People who think that taking selfies is not narcissistic believe that despite a seemingly strong personality, narcissists lack a core self. Like Narcissus, a hunter in Greek mythology who drowned because he could not stop looking at his reflection in a lake, narcissists only “love” themselves as reflected in the eyes of others (Lancer). There is a common misconception that they love themselves and may actually dislike themselves greatly. Their inflated self-flattery, perfectionism, and arrogance are merely covers for the self-loathing they don’t admit (Lancer). Instead, they project it upon others in their scorn for and criticism of others. Emotionally, they may be dead inside and craving to be validated by others.

Sadly, they are unable to appreciate the love they do get and they alienate those who give it. Narcissists tend to think highly of themselves. In particular, they tend to have a positive view of themselves compared to other people. Researchers, Emily Grijalva and Luyao Zhang conducted a meta-analysis of a number of studies relating people’s degree of narcissism to their tendency to enhance their view of themselves. Overall, there was a tendency for narcissists to have a heightened vision of themselves. Interestingly, narcissists were likely to enhance traits that reflect their ability to influence the world. Therefore, narcissists perceived themselves to be more arrogant, extroverted, honest, and open than other people thought them to be. They also thought themselves to be more intelligent, better leaders, and more physically attractive than others thought them to be.

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