Are Blogs Narcissism
Amplifiers?
After
a long break involving a move from one NY neighborhood to another and a frenetic
season at work, I have returned to the blogosphere in the height of a
skin-sticking, sweat-dripping July.
Absence
on this blog has left me with a fidgety, nagging feeling. Over
the past few months, I took self-expression by the hand and stuffed it callously
into a box labeled “daily grind monotony.”
At a
certain point, I began to look forward to returning to the blogosphere and sinking
my teeth into colorful fashion photos, summer makeup woes, posts about the rare
existence of available, good men…You
know, typical fare for the 23 year old Jewish single female.
Then,
one evening, I came across a website that had an article titled “The 10 Most
Compelling Subplots on Your Facebook Newsfeed.” The author (who has a penchant
for scribbling bitingly sarcastic articles) listed different
types of individuals who grate his nerves on Facebook.
There
were plenty. And according to this author (let’s call him Sir Derisive), “the
blogger” is one of ‘em.
Why?
Because the blogger will annoyingly beg, borrow, and steal “likes” on social
media. He or she will desperately fawn for approval and coerce others to check out the blog.
Sir
Derisive’s complaint against a blogger’s over-promoting on Facebook didn’t
bother me. In fact, I readily plead guilty for scooping a “thumbs up” from
Facebook friends like some tyrannical octopus with ravenous suctioning cups. I
can over-promote to the point of “Goodness, can we just take this blogger and
throw her into a pit full of snakes and scorpions already?” annoyance.
So,
yes, I understand the author’s frustration with bloggers on that account. Social media is the way to
promote these days, and some of us (me!) take merciless advantage of it. Thus,
I accept this criticism with a humbled heart.
Yet,
what did irk me about Sir Derisive’s commentary
was his description of the blog as a “personal
narcissism amplifier.”
