A new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has accumulated data for the past 47 years from 9 million young adults, reveals that college students are more likely than ever to call themselves gifted and driven to succeed, even though their test scores and time spent studying are decreasing.
Psychologist Jean Twenge, the lead author of the analysis, is also the author of a study showing that the tendency toward narcissism in students is up 30 percent in the last thirty-odd years.
This data is not unexpected. I have been writing a great deal over the past few years about the toxic psychological impact of media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults, particularly as it regards turning them into faux celebritiesâ??the equivalent of lead actors in their own fictionalized life stories.
On Facebook, young people can fool themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of â??friends.â?? They can delete unflattering comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their inflated self-esteem. They can choose to show the world only flattering, sexy or funny photographs of themselves (dozens of albums full, by the way), â??speakâ?? in pithy short posts and publicly connect to movie stars and professional athletes and musicians they â??like.â??
Although I don’t doubt a rise in narcissism, that old white male is writing for other old white males who think the 50s were the pinnacle of American society.
It’s doom and gloom about sex, drugs, and video games, not to mention that damn INTERNET composed of TUBES that subverts the authority of the fossilized alabaster patriarchy.
I once made a comment to a guy I used to work with that a co-worker of ours was better at our job than I am. It wasn’t jealousy, anger, or anything negative, just a fact. The guy had been working as an electrician before he joined the USMC, so even though he’s been in for a bit less time than myself, he caught on to this job (related to electronics and such) faster than I (and anyone else in for a similar amount of time) did. Good for him.
My friend looked at me like I was crazy for saying that, and told me “You shouldn’t say that”, seemingly convinced that I must be making excuses for not being the absolute best at what I do.
I laughed, because it was indicative of that mindset of ‘Never admit anybody is better than you’ that is all too prevalent in society. Sure, strive to be the best and all, but guess what? Only ONE person can be the best at any one thing. When you have 50% of people positive they are the best at the same thing, is that healthy? Or just stupid?
The nice thing about lifting is the iron can make pretty short work of your ego. It’s impossible to delude yourself into locking out a 500lb deadlift if the strength isn’t there.
Maybe in the future, young lifters will become choice hires because of humility imparted by the iron.
[quote]grettiron wrote:
The nice thing about lifting is the iron can make pretty short work of your ego. It’s impossible to delude yourself into locking out a 500lb deadlift if the strength isn’t there.
Maybe in the future, young lifters will become choice hires because of humility imparted by the iron.[/quote]
True to a point. I mean, you always have those kids who delude themselves into thinking they can squat 500 lbs when they’re barely bending their knees, reduced ROM/ass off bench for bench press…though deadlift is pretty pure. Even hitching generally will only add a couple lbs.
[quote]grettiron wrote:
Although I don’t doubt a rise in narcissism, that old white male is writing for other old white males who think the 50s were the pinnacle of American society.
It’s doom and gloom about sex, drugs, and video games, not to mention that damn INTERNET composed of TUBES that subverts the authority of the fossilized alabaster patriarchy.[/quote]
I understand the essence of your post but why did you capitalize “internet” and “tubes.”
[quote]grettiron wrote:
The nice thing about lifting is the iron can make pretty short work of your ego. It’s impossible to delude yourself into locking out a 500lb deadlift if the strength isn’t there.
Maybe in the future, young lifters will become choice hires because of humility imparted by the iron.[/quote]
True to a point. I mean, you always have those kids who delude themselves into thinking they can squat 500 lbs when they’re barely bending their knees, reduced ROM/ass off bench for bench press…though deadlift is pretty pure. Even hitching generally will only add a couple lbs.
[quote]grettiron wrote:
Although I don’t doubt a rise in narcissism, that old white male is writing for other old white males who think the 50s were the pinnacle of American society.
It’s doom and gloom about sex, drugs, and video games, not to mention that damn INTERNET composed of TUBES that subverts the authority of the fossilized alabaster patriarchy.[/quote]
I understand the essence of your post but why did you capitalize “internet” and “tubes.”
[/quote]
Because of former Senator Ted Stevens. Maybe as a Kiwi it didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
[quote]hungry4more wrote:
I once made a comment to a guy I used to work with that a co-worker of ours was better at our job than I am. It wasn’t jealousy, anger, or anything negative, just a fact. The guy had been working as an electrician before he joined the USMC, so even though he’s been in for a bit less time than myself, he caught on to this job (related to electronics and such) faster than I (and anyone else in for a similar amount of time) did. Good for him.
My friend looked at me like I was crazy for saying that, and told me “You shouldn’t say that”, seemingly convinced that I must be making excuses for not being the absolute best at what I do.
I laughed, because it was indicative of that mindset of ‘Never admit anybody is better than you’ that is all too prevalent in society. Sure, strive to be the best and all, but guess what? Only ONE person can be the best at any one thing. When you have 50% of people positive they are the best at the same thing, is that healthy? Or just stupid?[/quote]
I’m sure I mentioned this in another thread, but I think it’s somewhat relevant here.
A while ago we had a young guy working for us who was absolutely certain he was God’s gift to, well, everything. I mentioned once that I was contemplating giving the Highland Games a go, just for fun. I obviously didn’t expect to place or anything. We host an international calibre event, and I haven’t thrown competitively since shot putt HS.
He thought it represented a crippling lack of confidence on my part that I didn’t expect to win the whole thing. I had no real response to this.
The worst part of this narcissism is that they are passing it on to their children, like naming them ridiculous names that no one else would have like Nevaeh, Brayden, Hashtag (as in Twitter), etc.
It seems like the yougner people are the more they complain.
I mean young North American women seem to automatically whine or complain about everything that can possibly be complained about.
I mean no one really wants rain all the time, but the way the under 30 American woman would complain about it (more like a “Pffft! So typical that it would just have to rain on Saturday!” with an eye-roll) makes it sound worse than licking an orange-flavored battery after brushing your teeth with paper and getting a paper cut on your tongue.
Christ, you give an American girl a bar of gold and they complain how heavy it is.
[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Does this surprise anybody? [/quote]
No. I run a drilling company. I love to hire 50 year old grizzled guys as drilling hands because they will out-work an 18 year old any day, even though they are beat down and limping around.
[quote]grettiron wrote:
The nice thing about lifting is the iron can make pretty short work of your ego. It’s impossible to delude yourself into locking out a 500lb deadlift if the strength isn’t there.
Maybe in the future, young lifters will become choice hires because of humility imparted by the iron.[/quote]
I’d disagree, gyms today are filled with fuckheads whose egos far outweigh their performances. Steroid usage among young males in western society is more prevalent than ever.
There’s nothing special about lifting heavy things that makes you humble. Sure I’ve met great people in the gym, I’ve also met slews of dickheads who personify narcissism. People will be people, the activities they engage in don’t really change that.
It has to do with this everyone is a special snowflake, or a princess, or how everyone has to get a trophy and everyone is a winner so no one feels bad. It’s infiltrated institutions that touch our youth at such young tender ages, it’s no wonder we’re having these kind of problems now.
[quote]grettiron wrote:
The nice thing about lifting is the iron can make pretty short work of your ego. It’s impossible to delude yourself into locking out a 500lb deadlift if the strength isn’t there.
Maybe in the future, young lifters will become choice hires because of humility imparted by the iron.[/quote]
I’d disagree, gyms today are filled with fuckheads whose egos far outweigh their performances. Steroid usage among young males in western society is more prevalent than ever.
There’s nothing special about lifting heavy things that makes you humble. Sure I’ve met great people in the gym, I’ve also met slews of dickheads who personify narcissism. People will be people, the activities they engage in don’t really change that.[/quote]
Maybe I have selection bias. I can accept your perspective.