Is ‘Facebook’, the social networking website, making us narcissist? A new book argues we’re much more
self-absorbed nowadays, stating that technology is to blame. I tweet, therefore I am. Or is it, I tweet,
therefore I am insufferable? As if adult celebrities that pop out on the red carpets weren’t clue enough,
we now have statistical evidence that we are a lot more in love with ourselves than we used to be. This
social phenomenon has raised fields of research to academic studies nowadays. In the book ‘The
Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement’, Jean M. Twenge, a professor of psychology at
San Diego State University, and W. Keith Campbell, a social psychologist at the University of Georgia,
look to the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, which measures self-regard, materialism, and lack of
empathy. They found that the number of college students scoring high on the test has risen by 30 percent
since the early 1980’s.
What has NOT been encouraging people to act the way described in the text?