Vanity, Thy Name is MySpace!

I heard a report this week about the rise of narcissism among college students. Right away, I connected the study to the Teen Content study we read for class this week. The Pew report didn’t give much analysis to all the data presented. The nut ‘graph: Blogging, Content creation and music downloading is on the rise. Teenage girls lead the way in use. Except with music downloading. But girls listen to more music. Okaaaaay. What does all this all this mean for teens? How are their lives changing because they have shifted their focus away from whatever it was they were doing before they started blogging, downloading music and creating content?

And what's the effect? I really wanted to know. I realize that all these Internet activities are fairly new so maybe we won't know for a few years yet. But consider the data that Jean Twenge presents. An excerpt from the CNN.com story:

"Twenge and her colleagues examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006.
The standardized inventory, known as the NPI, asks for responses to such statements as "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to.

The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982."

In addition, here's an excerpt from an intro to the NPR story that ran on the mid-day show Day to Day:
"In their study, researchers trace the phenomenon back to the "self-esteem movement" that began in in the 1980s. And, they say, young people's self-regard is fueled by current technologies such as MySpace and YouTube."

This report really got my attention, because it speaks directly to one of my main rants in life that I would like to share with any teen patrons I might have in the future: the stop thinking you have to be rich and famous rant. I instigated a little background research and in doing so, seem to have found my ideological kindred spirit. Postman's book Technopoly from 1992 is just what I was looking for to articulate my beliefs on technology and culture.

I’m not trying to be merely negative about new technologies for the sake of it. I just would like a bit of room to question new/emerging technology. Our society has a welcoming attitude about new technology that can be a bit overbearing. I was surrounded by cutting edge technology when I lived in San Francisco. I found most of the services and hardware I encountered to be just a solution in search of problem that wasn’t actually there.

So what will I say to the teens in my library who love blogging and myspace? Beware of becoming your own personal art project. The goal here is always looking outwards, sharing, and connecting.