THE 3AM ONE OF SAM
KNOCKING HER TEETH OUT
HAD FAILED TO MAKE IT ONTO
THE PROFILE STRANGELY
OVERSHA RING?
My new pill is making
me psychotic”, “Thank
god that waste of space
dumped me” and “Just
applying for a new job,
fingers crossed as my boss is driving
me mad”. Nope, not the revelations of
a fiery Jeremy Kyle audience or a bit
of candid gossiping between friends.
Far from it. These are just a handful
of intimate secrets that three
Facebook users recently decided to
announce to their colleagues and
friends over cyberspace.
Over on Twitter the offerings were
a little more mundane: “Weetabix or
Shreddies for breakfast? Help, I can’t
decide!”, “Can’t wait to crash on the
sofa tonight” and “Just had a Mars Bar…
Mmmm”. Thanks for sharing; no, really.
Aside from these individuals’ desire
to keep the world updated on their
every movement (regardless of how
personal that movement may be),
updates like these go to show how
social networking is fast becoming less
about keeping in touch with others and
more about keeping in touch with
“NETWORKING
IS A MEDIUM
THROUGH WHICH
TO TALK ABOUT
YOURSELF.
IT’S BECOME ALL
ME, ME, ME”
yourself. Networking is now narcissism
personified; a medium through which
to talk about yourself and project
yourself in the best possible light. In
short, it’s become all me, me, me.
Before you feel wracked with vanity,
don’t – we all do it. Announce good
news, upload photos we love, post
comments to show off our rapier wit...
But what we don’t do is analyse our
behaviour and stop to think how to
it might come across.
Visuals, of course, are the easiest
way for users to project a perfectly
polished persona. The 102 profile
pictures all taken to enhance one’s
‘good side’; the 25 albums of exotic
holiday pictures (edited so as not to
include any pasty beach shots from the
first few days of the trip); the loved-up
couple who can’t get enough of each
other, and appear intertwined in every
shot. Again, we’ve all done it.
Noticeably however, it’s status
updates in which online narcissism
really takes off. First, there’s the
self-promotional variety, more common
to the bragging testosteronepumped
City boys on the
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