Facebook’s “Look Back” videos—slideshows of selected life moments set against Kraft mac n' cheese, Lifetime-ready music—have officially been shared more than 100 million times (which incidentally feels like the number of times I’ve seen one come through my own feed…)
Let us reiterate: 200 million freakin' people have taken time out of their time-strapped lives to craft a “look at me!” documentary featuring them hugging friends, hanging with their dog, and eating stuff.
This troubling figure adds credence to the burgeoning theory that, as psychologists Jean M. Twnege and W. Keith Campbell have claimed, we’re living through a “narcissism epidemic” (yes, but how do I look?) Their research supports what I previously covered when exploring Facebook: that it's an ego-feeding beast capable of boosting or devastating people’s self-worth like a nasty schoolyard bully.
But there’s an important distinction to be made here: Does Facebook make people narcissistic, or simply cater to those with existing "I'm a baller!" tendencies? Twnege and Campbell note there’s a lot more of the latter than the former, while adding:
“[Internet] applications are used by millions of others [read: non-narcissists] to build their businesses, coordinate events, and maintain close ties with friends and families.”
In other words, many are posting these videos to simply share cool moments of their lives with others while tapping into benign nostalgia. (Yawn.)
So maybe we’re not in the midst of an Internet-fueled egotist epidemic after all? Or, er, maybe we are.
Image: My personal Facebook profile (How do I look?)
