Generation Y = Generation Me?

lately more and more people are using social media. not only is it used to connect friend A to friend B, companies have also started using it. there is a saying if you dont have it you are so out of it. here an article i wrote on generation Y (my generation) using social media and how does it affect us? for better or for worst?

The study by Youth Pulse found that 92% use MySpace or Facebook regularly while 84% go online more than once a day. Generation Y believe that social media is great for personal and professional branding which will be facilitate success in a competitive world.

More than half surveyed also believe that social networking sites encourage self-promotion, narcissism and self attention. As we live in a competitive world, many already experienced symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. We are brought up thinking we must be narcissist to survive.

Narcissism is a problem that can range from being discourteous, such as disregarding curfews and blasting noisy music. It may also lead to failed marriages and abusive working environments. Instead of being successful, all these confidence may lead to antisocial behavior.

“College students have clearly noticed the more self-centered traits of their peers – it’s fascinating how honest they are about diagnosing their generation’s downsides … And students are right about the influence of social networking sites – research has shown that narcissistic people thrive on sites like Facebook, where self-centered people have more friends and post more attractive pictures of themselves.” Jean Twenge, an SDSU Psychology Professor and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement

As the future generation are more in-tuned with technology, more can upload pictures of themselves via iphones and become more self indulgent. People are careful and deliberately post photos to market themselves as quirky and appealing people. For example friend A will post pictures of herself at a club having fun with a lot of friends. She would want to show the world that she is fun, happening and spend her Saturday night with lots of friends. With social media, a person can control how they want other people view them and project a ‘perfect’ image of themselves.