You unlock your phone, the first app you go to is Snapchat. You select a filter and begin to send snaps to your “streaks”. You take a few more selfies and post an occasional selfie to your story. Blue boxes appear, and you finally feel validated from the outpouring of compliments from your friends! Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are prime examples of this phenome with repetitive snapchats of them in the kitchen, trying on makeup, making it all about them.  This is a cycle that happens daily among teenagers and young adults. Thus, creating narcissistic behavior that is hard to break.

Social media is the cause of self- absorption among individuals. Having a device at the ease of our fingertips allows for narcissistic behavior to occur.  In a study done by Cecilie Schou Andreassen in 2017, “addictive use of social media was related to higher narcissism and lower self- esteem”. The effect phones have on the brain allows for psychological issues to occur. After seeing individuals constantly post about themselves, there is a higher need to compare to others and seek validation to be the “best looking” or “most attractive”. Narcissistic behavior includes making the conversation about you and difficulty thinking about others.  This drive to be the best and look the best as well can lead to a destructive behavior that can hurt relationships, careers, and create neurotic tendencies (Wodzinski). This destruction is what allows for people to distance themselves from people that are meaningful in their life and miss out on moments because they are so concerned on feeling vindicated.  Recent studies provide more information on the growing issue, Harvard Medical School explains how the rush of addiction becomes irresistible due to the brain’s pathways being over active (Wodzinski). The pleasure people find in using their phones is ultimately creating an addiction that the brain believes it has to continue fueling. Thompson also elaborates how the “embrace of like, shares, and retweets is somehow biologically attracting the dopamine centers in our brains to make us feel happier”. Therefore, higher usage of cell phone creates this rush exciting the person to use it even more.  This urge also leads to neurotic behavior such as anxiety when cell phones are lost, run out or battery, or they have zero notifications.  Cell phone users continuously check for text, calls, and emails anything to see if they are wanted (Wodzinski).

This narcissistic behavior is also seen even on apps such as Twitter where people can’t even fully state their opinion without being attacked, even down to their character. Twitter is supposed to be a place where users can use 141 characters to express their opinions on issues, how they’re feeling, and so on. It’s an open environment where people can post anything they want, there shouldn’t be boundaries to what is posted.  Zac Thompson explains how, “meaningful issues are rarely examined or questioned, and social media has made this okay by allowing us to alienate ourselves from diverse perspectives. We’d rather be sheltered in our own self- fulfilling bubbles filled with selfies and Buzzfeed sad cats than deal with the diverse nature of the outside world”. Our acceptance of others decreases, and people can’t even hear multiple perspectives. People become so focused on their stance towards various issues that they don’t explore the opposing sides, making more narrow-minded individuals a regular.

Individuals could argue that cellphones are a great source of enjoyment and way to connect with friends. It provides entertainment when you're bored and allows you to receive an inside view into people’s lives.  It is the best way to be updated consistently on current events going on locally and globally. However, it’s safe to say that although the phone provides these advantages people must learn to create boundaries within its usage. Our phones shouldn’t be the only option to feeling better about yourself and constantly relying on social media to determine what’s right or wrong.  Moderation is key. Setting time limits to how long you are on apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook can allow for less narcissistic tendencies to become routine. From personal experience, I’ve learned to limit my time on these apps so I’m not constantly posting myself just to boost my confidence for five seconds. By adapting these solutions to individual’s daily lives the issue of narcissistic behavior from people can limit the urge to post 24/7. It’s a sad case but there are no direct treatments for the issue. The person dealing with narcissistic behavior and cell phone addiction must singlehandedly try to stop using their phone and make it a personal decision.  

 The behavior created from our cell phones is what will be a normal for society if we don’t see the harmful effect it has on us.  This behavior is even infiltrating classrooms where teachers are requiring students to talk to each other instead being on their phones (Benjamin). The thrill of Instagram likes, Facebook shares, and Twitter retweets should not be the driving force to be a better person. Expanding perspective, hearing others, and not being the center of attention but focusing on other important issues should be the goal individuals strive for. Ultimately, social media and narcissism do go hand in hand, the blatant effect it has humans leads to neurotic behaviors and narcissistic tendencies.  These tendencies allow for behavior to occur which leaves less hope for humanity.

Works Cited

Andreassen, Cecilie Schou, et al. “The Relationship between Addictive Use of Social Media, Narcissism, and Self-Esteem: Findings from a Large National Survey.” Addictive Behaviors, vol. 64, 2017, pp. 287–293.

 Benjamin, Elliot. “Humanistic Antidotes to Social Media/Cell Phone Addiction in the College Classroom.” Journal of Arts and Humanities.

 Thompson, Zac. “Social Media Is Making Us All Awful and Self Absorbed.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost, 26 Nov. 2017.

Wodzenski, Darleen Claire. “Why Your Cell Phone Addiction Is Turning You Into A Total Narcissist.” YourTango, 30 Apr. 2015.