Generation Y And The New Myth Of Narcissism Summary

Living in one of the wealthiest and blessed countries in the world, anyone can look around and see people who are absorbed and obsessed with themselves. But can you blame them? With media portraying celebrities and others as the “rulers” of our world, people are constantly thriving to be like them to the point where a high self-esteem may turn to narcissism. The question is, is narcissism really on the rise? According to the article by Jean M. Twenge, “Changes in Narcissism,” narcissism has almost a negative connotation. Narcissists are overly self-confident and portray a “lack of empathy for others” (185). Also, they may feel entitled to certain things because they think they are better than everyone else. A narcissist may fight with loved

Twenge also describes a narcissist as being “the darker side of the focus on the self,” and can often be mixed up with high self-esteem (185). Self-esteem, quite different than narcissism, is based on the attention, love, and relationships of other people. Narcissism, Twenge explains, is more focused on love of self and believing that one is more special than everyone else. Duncan Greenberg defines narcissism in his article “Generation Y and the New Myth of Narcissus” as “an elusive term” (187). He describes narcissists as having the need for praise and attention and having no empathy for others. Greenberg also explains that they expect a certain type of treatment. I conducted my own research and found on dictionary.com that narcissism is defined as

In 1950, 12% of teens agreed that they were important. In the 1980s almost 80% claimed they were important. Another survey was conducted by a Psychologist, Harrison Gough. He quizzed college student between the 1960s and 1990s on topics including narcissistic ideas. Gough saw a steady and consistent increase in the results. The third survey was done by Joshua Foster, Keith Campbell, and the author of this article, Jean M. Twenge. It was conducted in 2002 on 3,445 people. They discovered that younger people scored considerably higher on the NPI until age 35. The author explains that this survey did have a default in that it was a one-time experiment. Duncan Greenberg, author of the article “Generation Y and the New Myth of Narcissus” studied a survey done by Jean M. Twenge where she claimed that “30% more college students showed ‘elevated narcissism’ in 2006 compared with 1982,” and that the new generation had reached a level of self-esteem considered to be unhealthy (187). Greenberg thinks these studies have a flaw. Most people agree that narcissists aren’t going to flat out tell you they’re narcissists so, one has to trick the person by having them answer a