In the past few years, social media has had a big impact on people’s daily lives. People often use social media 100-200 times a day. Since it is now a big part of our daily routines, it also influences our attitudes and the way we see things.

One behavior that social media has increased in teens lately is narcissism. According to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), Narcissism is defined by a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy. Many teens online have shown some signs of this personality disorder.

Eagles at Osbourn High School answered some questions regarding the topic, and this is what they said.

“Based on operant learning, when something rewards us, it is likely to increase that behavior. This is why people care so much about likes and followers and all that stuff. It makes them want to keep posting. It gives us a sense of self,” said Peter Zenewicz, the AP Psychology teacher at Osbourn High School. 

Based on this theory, teenagers feel the need to keep posting online because likes and all that stuff reinforces that behavior, so it is more likely to increase.

Many of us react very differently when we have a disagreement with someone. Some of us try to see the other person’s point of view, and some of us just want to make the other person understand why our opinion is correct or better, according to us. Something we can all agree on is that we act very differently when we have a disagreement online than with a friend or acquaintance face to face.

“It really depends on the situation, and overall, I wouldn’t be friends with a horrible human being. A friend could be a simple apology, whereas with a stranger, I would react more aggressively since I have nothing to lose. Some of those people need someone to put them in their place,” said the English teacher Jennifer Paprocki.

Something that makes us stop and think before we speak is the relationship we have with the person we are talking to, but if we don’t have a prior relationship or even know the person we are talking to, we usually tend to be more mean or aggressive. There is even a phenomenon that explains this, it is called “online disinhibition effect,” which is primarily caused by the psychological phenomenon called deindividuation. Deindividuation is when we lose our sense of self when we are in a group because of anonymity and diffusion of responsibility. Because of this, we usually do things that we wouldn’t normally do if we didn’t have deindividuation, like being more mean and egocentric like we are online.

Something that makes teenagers feel “better than others” or makes them act more narcissistic is their followers, likes, and views. This affects mainly their mental health, self-esteem, and behavior. Teens often compare themselves or their lifestyles with people with a higher social influence, when in reality, the things these influencers post are mostly not true.

“I think at some point, we all care about followers and views and likes because we probably want to be famous, or just future careers in general. Getting the attention from followers makes you think there is a chance to achieve that dream that you always had as a little kid,” sophomore Genesis Hernandez stated. 

She talks about how we all have, at some point, cared about likes, followers, and views because most people have had a dream to become famous or popular online, so when people online interact with their posts, it makes them feel like they could be close to accomplishing that dream.

One thing that a lot of people do online is post something to make other people jealous. Most people do this to prove everyone wrong about what they thought about them, or to get a reaction from people.

“Yes, I have personally posted something to get a specific reaction or to seek validation from someone, whether it was intentional or unintentional,” said Nathalie Cortez, a junior. 

Sometimes people post stuff to get a certain reaction from people without being conscious about it, which just shows how social media could make someone feel the need to “impress” other people.

What do you think? Does social media make us more narcissistic? Let me know in the comments!