Following a Sunday school class I taught this fall that attempted to examine how social networking Web sites can have unintended negative impact upon personal relationships, I received a helpful article from a parishioner who attended and is also a psychiatrist. The article was from the November 2009 issue of Psychiatric Times entitled, “Twitter and YouTube: Unexpected Consequences of the Self-Esteem Movement.” Written by Lauren D. LaPorta, MD, the article’s thesis is that the popularity of Web sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube is a fruit of “the self-esteem movement.” This movement originated in the late 1960’s and crept into mainstream educational theory and practice for decades to follow. An unintended consequence of the movement has been an increasingly narcissistic culture wherein self-esteem is measured more by self-gratification and expressive individualism than by a sense of belonging and identity with a group larger than the self.
How does this view of the self-esteem movement relate to Facebook or MySpace? Here is what LaPorta has to say:
While the self-esteem movement has been largely debunked, we are just now reaping what it has sown. The generation raised under these conditions is entering the workforce and has been described as difficult and that their expectations far exceed those of their predecessors in entry level positions. The praise they have been given all of their lives is still expected, even if they have not done anything to earn it and they lack the resiliency to deal with real disappointment and the realities of life.
It should come as no surprise, then, that survivors of this largely failed social experiment have turned to other outlets to seek the praise to which they have grown so accustomed. Their choices, however, may not be improving their lot. By investing in virtual relationships in cyberspace rather than in the real world, they may be continuing a vicious cycle of empty praise, disingenuousness, and superficiality. The computer screen lacks the nuances of interpersonal interaction but may lead to a false belief that the human needs for love, friendship, and intimacy have been met. Even the meaning of friendship has dramatically changed in the digital age. The number of people that you can count as friends on these sites contributes to individual status and engenders a sense of importance. Relationships are not valued for their own sake but, rather, in bulk. Friends are “collected” and displayed on web pages for all the world to see and admire. (Psychiatric Times, November 2009 issue)
Ouch! To read LaPorta’s unfashionably critical but well-argued article click here: