Burnham, Bo. "Make Happy." June 3, 2016, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, New York, USA. Comedy Lecture.
In this Comedy routine by Bo Burnham, Bo talks about his personal relationship with performing. He starts his monologue near the end of the show, by saying "I think everyone was taught [to express yourself and have things to say, and everyone will care about them] and most of us found out no one gives a shit... They say it's the Me Generation. No. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. It's self-conscious. It's conscious of self... Social media; it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform. So the market said, "Here, perform everything to each other, all the time, for no reason." It's prison, it's horrific. It is performer and audience melded together... I know very little about anything, but what I do know is that if you can live your life without an audience; you should do it." Bo Burnham got his career started on YouTube and had a very strong following on other social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Vine), therefore I think I can trust his perspective on how social media cultivated a "me" generation, and the adverse side effects of that kind of following. There's not much to add to this. I feel bad that my summary is basically his whole speech, but I think he said it much more elegantly than I could have put it (plus, that was his whole spiel). I find it very interesting that in the middle of the this monologue, he says that even though he had a privileged life, got lucky, and he's unhappy; now that he's been out of the spotlight, and therefore off social media platforms, for a couple years and has been making a movie, he seems a lot more happy with his life.
Burton, Neel. “The 10 Personality Disorders.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, May 29,www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/the-10-personality-disorders.
In this article, published by Psychology Today, Neel Burton lists and explains different personality disorder. Neel explains the different "clusters" of personality disorders, with the first being Cluster A, exemplified by paranoia, schizophrenia, etc. He continues with Cluster B: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic and Narcissistic personality disorder. Neel lists these and gives brief explanations of each: (Antisocial PD) "aggressive, act impulsively, lack guilt," (Borderline PD) "have sudden outbursts of anger (especially in response to criticism)," (Histrionic) "They often seem to be dramatizing," (Narcissistic) "seem self- absorbed." Neel finishes with Cluster C: Avoidant, dependent and obsessive-compulsive. Burton Neel is a psychiatrist and philosopher who teaches in Oxford, England. He has won multiple awards, including: British Medical Association's Young Author's Award, the Medical Journalists' Association Open Book Award, and Best in the World Gourmand Award. I am most interested with the Cluster B, because it seems that people I know, especially when communicating on social media, present signs of this kind of disorder, especially Histrionic personality disorder. On top of that Avoidant personality disorder seems to be another, where they "believe that tye are socially inept, unappealing or inferior" to others.
Carpenter, Chris. "Narcissism on Facebook: Self-promotional and anti-social behavior." 4 Nov. 2011.
In this study, Chris Carpenter studies the relationship between narcissism and Facebook usage. Carpenter explains that grandiose exhibitionism was positively associated with accepting stranger's friend invites, so they can have a larger audience; he also shows that people scoring higher in narcissism seek support from others, rather than provide it, and get angry when others don't comment on their status updates. Carpenter has published over two dozen peer-reviewed journal articles about a number of issues. He's also the author of multiple entries in multiple encyclopedias. There wasn't much new to explore with this survey study, since this is the 5th source I've gotten. It was much more in depth than Mariani's article, giving statistics and figures to back up their claim, and it gives my thesis a bit more backbone. Mariani didn't quote Carpenter at all; hitting Ctrl F and typing in one word at a time, separately, I couldn't find anything that even resembles that quote. This isn't to say that the quote isn't untrue, or that it's misguiding, it's just to say that if he were to use quotation marks, he should have actually quoted something. This decreases Mariani's credibility a little bit. I'm only saying "a little bit" because he basically summarized an entire article in half a sentence, but, at the same time, he didn't use an actual quote. I learned that even a well written article, that seems credible because of the quotes and statistics, can edit an entire study down to 20 words, put it in quotes, and call it a day. It's kind of weird, on one hand I want to scorn him for not doing his journalistic duty by not giving an exact quote. At the same time, he didn't say anything that the study didn't say (other than the exactness of the wording).
Grimes, David Robert. “Echo Chambers Are Dangerous – We Must Try to Break Free of Our Online Bubbles.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Dec. 2017, www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/dec/04/echo-chambers-are-dangerous-we-must-try-to-break-free-of-our-online-bubbles.
This article by David Grimes explores the thought processes behind creating an "echo-chamber" of ideas. Grimes quotes MIT researchers Marshal Van Alstyne and Erik Brynjolfsson, by saying "Individuals empowered to screen out material that does not conform to their existing preferences may form virtual cliques, insulate themselves from opposing points of view, and reinforce their biases." He continues to explain how the Internet's "news" doesn't abide by any law, unlike traditional media (paper and TV), and how an "estimated 61% of millennials garner news primarily through social media." He also explains how the news we see gets algorithmically curated to conform to our social media preferences and how humans love confirmation bias. One of the biggest echo-chambers out there is the advance of anti-vaccination narratives. Grimes shows sources that confirm the fall of vaccinations despite its life-saving efficacy. Grimes also says that these echo-chambers "lock us into perpetual tribalism, and does tagible damage to our understanding. To counteract this, we need to become more discerning at analyzing our sources." Grimes has a slurry of evidence and sources backing up everything he's saying. Every single paragraph has at least one hyperlink that goes right to the source, one even has 7, which is outstanding. He is also a physicist and cancer researcher at Oxford University and winner of the 2014 John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science. The idea of an echo-chamber is a fascinating one, and when understanding the psychology behind it, it makes a great deal of sense; people love when they are right, and when nobody's around to tell you that you aren't, you feel even better. It reminds me of the flat earth theories cropping up. It's almost as if these people started it as a joke, but then some people took it too far, and they picked up crazy people along the way.
Lee, Jung-Ah and Yongjun Sung. "Hide-And-Seek: Narcissism and 'Selfie'-Related Behavior." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, vol. 19, no. 5, May 2016, pp. 347-351. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1089/cyber.2015.0486.
This is a scholarly journal about a survey, conducted by Jung-Ah Lee and Yongjun Sung, that postulates the link between narcissism and social media. Lee and Sun started their research with a group of 315 people (19-39, M=29), by giving them a narcissism assessment quiz and then cross-examining that with selfie-related behaviors. They found that "individuals higher in narcissism regard the act of posting selfies more positively and are more willing to continue posting selfies in the future." So, Lee and Sun, did find a relationship between the two. They also found that "Individuals higher in narcissism are not apathetic toward other people’s social media content and actually are more likely to keep an eye on what others are posting as a means of comparative self-enhancement strategy." Basically what they are saying is that people who score higher on narcissism don't "like" or share other's posts, but instead, look at them as a means to compare their lives. Both authors have a PhD. I couldn't find much about Jung-Ah Lee, because, apparently that's a decently common name. Yongjun Sung, on the other hand, is an associate professor of psychology at Korea University who focuses on consumer psychology. That second part about comparing your life to another's, while, at the same time, not outwardly showing that you like it, is astronomically more fascinating to me. I can't really explain why, at least not yet, but something about gathering information about other people's lives and using that to enhance yourself, either mentally or physically, is fascinating to me.
In this article, Mike Mariani writes about the adverse side-effects of social media. Mariani mentions Yusuf Coteh and Damon Rosmond, who announced that if the Periscope (a live streaming platform that you can "find hundreds of people trying to transform their lives into stages,") viewership got over 100, they would go out and shoot the neighborhood "indiscriminately." Luckily enough, Mariani continues to explain that local law enforcement were tipped off before anything. He continues by explaining the "Dark Triad - a cluster of personality traits that include psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism," in relationship to heavy social media use, saying that "society in general doesn't condone an individual who is laser-focused on his own appearance, opinions, and achievements, [but] social media platforms are perfect hot-beds for the self-absorbed." Another anecdote that Mariani explains is Marina Lonina, 18, who got drunk with a 29-year-old man, Gates, who started sexually assaulting Lonina's 17-year-old friend; instead of trying to intervene, Loinina started live streaming the assault on Periscope. Mariani explains that "Lonina laughed giddily as hearts spilled onto her phone's screen... [and] the live audience... trumped rape and reality itself." And the last example that Mariani gives is Christal Mcgee, who tracked her speed with Snapchat, then slowly inched past 100 miles an hour, until she hit 113; she was finally slowing down when she slammed somebody that was pulling onto the highway. Mcgee was going 107 mph at the moment of impact. "Mcgee was in the ambulance, strapped to a gurney with her face caked in blood, she returned to the app to snap a selfie. The caption read: "Lucky to be alive."" Mike Mariani has written 60 articles, ranging from Vanity Fair, to Psychology Today, among others. Due to his extensive work, and his constant use of quotes and references to studies, he is a credible writer. The anecdotes that Mariani gives are just a select few of the worst examples. That isn't to say that there aren't a lot of people using social media to perform their narcissistic (or even psychopathic) tendencies; it reminds of of that Jake Paul video, where he goes into the "suicide forest," finds a dead body, films it, laughs about it, then 2 minutes later- with a giant smile on his face- asks people to like and share the video. Then a week later, relates himself to Jesus fucking Christ. It is despicable, self-obsessive, self-grandiose behavior. Mariani: "In 2011, psychologist Chris Carpenter of Western Illinois University published a study looking at social media and qualities such as exhibitionism, entitlement, and exploitativeness... Social media "may give existing traits a greater outlet and my serve to strengthen some and weaken others by rewarding their expression.""
Marsh, Sarah. “Does Quitting Social Media Make You Happier? Yes, Say Young People Doing It.”The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 Sept. 2016, www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/21/does-quitting-social-media-make-you-happier-yes-say-young-people-doing-it.
This article by Sarah Marsh gives quotes, and personal anecdotes of some of the people who've quit social media and are happier because of it. Sarah Marsh has written numerous articles for The Guardian, a very trustworthy and reputable news source. There's not much to say on this source without plagiarizing it whole-sale, so I'll just leave it at that.
Pariser, Eli. "Beware online 'filter bubbles.'" TED, Mar. 2011, www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles
This TED talk by Eli Pariser discusses how, not only are people creating their own echo chambers, but so are companies, such as Google and Facebook. Everything from search history and Google account information, to geographic location are being used to show different results. Eli Pariser is a political activist and chief executive of Upworth, a website for "meaningful" viral content, as well as creating and working at several other websites. It's crazy, and somewhat scary, to think that Google is reinforcing people's biases based on so many factors.
Shearer, Elisa, and Jeffrey Gottfried. “Americans' online news use is closing in on TV news use”Pew Research Center's Journalism Project, 21 Aug, 2017, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/07/americans-online-news-use-vs-tv-news-use/
This article by Jeffery Gottfried and Elisa Shearer discusses some surveys about where people get their news. They explain how more and more people are getting their news from online news sources, and how it will likely take over TV news. They also show how "older Americans drive increase in online news use," showing that people over 65-year-olds rose 10 percent, while the younger generation only rose 2 percent. Elisa Shearer has a PHD from Georgetown University and has done schooling for psychology, she has also written numerous articles and conducted several surveys for Pew Research Center. Jeffrey Gotfried, PhD, is a senior researcher at Pew Research Center, he is also an author of several studies, mostly about news and media habits. The thing about online news sources are that they aren't bound by rules and regulations like TV or even newspapers are, making for a scary statistic when related to the onslaught of "fake news."
Survey of 91 people (first survey: 51, second survey 40) My personal research's amateurism cannot be overstated, I know almost nothing of conducting surveys, and it shows, not only in the questions I asked, but also the responses, among other things. And because of that, the numbers might be obscured. Take for instance my question "Do you take great care of your appearance because of what others think?" should have been worded better, with more emphasis on great care, because of this, most people (58.7%) answered "No. I take great care of my appearance, but not because of what others think." I think that if I had worded the question and added more diverse answers, people would have answered differently, with yes showing up more often, but because people don't like to think of themselves as vein or narcissistic, they answered in a way that keeps their "ideal self" intact. Even though that question is one of many that could have been better worded, 21.7% of people said yes, which I find fascinating. Anyway, with all that said, I think it was a successful look into the link between social media use and Histrionic, Narcissistic and Avoidant personality disorder (and ever so slightly Borderline personality disorder). From my findings, there seems to be a mild to medium connection with the two. I don't know whether the use of social media is a cause, or rather a symptom, of these personality disorders. It seems as though people that show narcissistic tendencies spend longer on social media, and also post pictures of themselves more often then the rest. Which is to be expected. Another thing I found interesting is the questions "Do you feel as though others" and "Have you ever been" insincere or superficial on social media, has an almost exactly inverse relationship with each other. 60% of people said "yes I find others insincere or superficial" and 50% of people said "no, I have never been insincere or superficial on social media." This seems to show that people have a disconnect between the way they act, as apposed to how they see others act. Which is to say that, just because you think you aren't being superficial, doesn't mean other people won't see it as such. This finding can be used to strengthen the argument that social media use has a connection with Histrionic PD. The two questions "Do you ever compare your life to those that you see on social media?" and "Have you ever felt unattractive when browsing social media?" seem to have a correlation too, with 60% saying "sometimes" and "yes," respectively. Showing that when some people compare themselves with others on social media, they feel that their life is unattractive or unappealing in some way, which could suggest Avoidant PD.
v2.0: My second attempt is a lot better. One thing I find initially interesting, is that people on Facebook were commenting on my post, "done." To me, this shows an outlet for them to get credit for what they are doing, if that makes sense. Anyway, getting into the survey, 60% of people were under the age of 25, with a 50-50 split of male to female. 30-35% of people show some amount of narcissism, while the same amount of people browse social media around 4-6 or more hours, which coincides with some evidence that those who use social media more, tend to show narcissistic traits or exhibitionism. Those same 30-35% use social media to primarily "share thoughts [and life] with others," showing a strong connection between narcissism and social media use. Another thing I found interesting is that 72.73% of people say they have never posted any negative things in their lives, which is the highest overall percentage of all the answers, showing that people only show the positive things in their lives, giving their social media persona a positive sight to onlookers. When asked if the respondents compare their lives to the lives of others on social media, 36.36% said yes, with the answer to "what do you compare? is your life better or worse?," out of the 10 people that answered, not one person said better, one person said "Better and worse" without an answer to the former question of what do you compare, with others saying: "Looks, relationships and intelligence" and another saying, "bodies, clothes, friends, houses," so basically everything. Which I find infinitely saddening. It's just terrible to think that, while I use social media to escape my troubles, others are finding themselves face to face with their own troubles within this perception of how much better their lives could be. This relates to the 72% of people who have never posted anything negative about their life, and how this need to "only show the good stuff" fosters a sense of dissatisfaction for other people.