Is Social Networking feeding our Narcissism?

I have been wanting to blog on this topic for weeks but the very topic I want to blog about would suck me into its whirlpool every now and then so strongly that getting out of its hold would be next to impossible. Yes, social networking has that power! 

Research after research throws up the same thing – every person loves a few words of appreciation, a pat on the back, an acknowledgement of the great work he/she is doing. When one does not get this, one’s motivation levels tend to go down, whether it is at work, home or any other place. 

Enter Social Networking. A phenomenon that has taken the world by storm. Why is it so? Is it because it allows people to connect with each other? No, there are phone calls for that. Is it because it allows one to give work update to others? No, there are emails for that. 

Then what is the reason? 

It is simply because social networking is an ego boosting mechanism, which allows your narcissism to grow manifold by feeding it regularly and yet making it crave for more and more. 

Every like that your status message generates on Facebook, every comment that your picture gathers and every new follower that you accumulate on Twitter are nothing but food for the narcissist inside each one of us. 

No wonder after every post that we upload, there is this constant urge to check the network regularly to see if anyone has liked it or not or has it generated a conversation or a mention or not or has it been retweeted or not. 

It is once again the veil of narcissism that allows us to celebrate every new follower, who most of the times is a stranger, who we do not know but yet are happy to have him or her follow us. This is the same reason bots are seen as useless but yet relevant, simply because they add up to the numbers and make us feel important in this crazy world. 

Today, even our styles of holidays and vacations have changed completely. It is more about capturing the right kind of pictures that can be shared with friends and get comments rather than sitting back and enjoying the view available to us. Every picture that is clicked is also checked and evaluated to see its potential to be shared and is deleted and clicked again if it is not worth sharing. 

The reality is that we may get bored and move from one social network to the other as we had done from Orkut to Facebook, but as long as the narcissism in us exists, social networking will continue to thrive and dominate a large part of our lives. 

Now I need to rush and quickly upload this post, so that the link of the same can be shared with all. My narcissistic hunger beckons!