Social media sites are supposed to help people connect with each other, but instead they are helping to breed a society of dim-witted narcissists who can’t think of anything interesting to say.
Some people think almost anything is worthy of broadcasting to society at large, no matter how routine it is. People think nothing of posting a close-up picture of their own face on Facebook for no other purpose than to solicit admiration, writing: “Please comment on how pretty I am.” Did we not learn anything from the story of Narcissus?
The following are some examples of Facebook and Twitter posts that I have seen:
“Here is a picture of all of my shoes.”
“I am looking out the window.”
“I need to stop for gas.”
“Happy birthday to me.”
“I made dinner.”
“I love my hands.”
“I look so cute in this picture.”
For the love of our nation and future generations, stop looking at yourself in the mirror. Stop taking pictures of yourself. Stop showing us pictures of your shoes, and pictures of your nose and pictures of your hands. Stop telling us every time you put gas in your car, or pick up milk or put air in your tires. We have our own errands to run, and you are not that amazing.
You know what would be amazing? It would be amazing if you read a book. It would be amazing if you used those beautiful hands of yours to help someone. It would be amazing if you took a picture of yourself buying a pair of shoes for a homeless person and posted that on Facebook, instead of that picture of your nose.
People who live in a free society should be obsessed with the myriad issues that plague our society, with the homeless man they pass every night on the way to their own houses, with the children going to sleep tonight with no food in their bellies, with reading a good book and discussing the underlying themes and how it relates to us as people or what we can learn from it, with real conversations where one person speaks while the other listens, and then that person responds to what was said.
They should not be concerned with “posts” — tidbits of information such as, “I like this. I do this. I eat this. I shop here. I drive there. I smile like this. I wear my hair like this. I bought that. I wear these. Look at me, I baked bread today. Look at me, I eat cookies. Look at me, I dunk them in milk. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.”
Narcissus died while staring into his own reflection. We now have an entire nation of people staring into cyberspace with the deep and longing love that at one time in our society was reserved for God, country, family and children. Now that love is for only one superior, amazing, beautiful, fascinating group of people.. . Us.