Daily Times

Did you tweet about the birthday night celebrations? Is your Instagram updated? Oh, you forgot to post your last night’s dinner on Facebook. My ex must be stalking me right now, I must pretend to be having the time of my life! We all are familiar with these statements owing to their incessant occurrence in our everyday lives. The excessive use of social media and absolute reliance on it for having a social life is one of the major factors in the increase of numerous personality disorders including NPD (narcissist personality disorder).

The constant need for validation from anonymous strangers, a grandiose sense of self rejecting the trajectory of a realist, adapting to a highly pretentious lifestyle, the uncontrollable urge to be in the limelight and desiring power, and an absolute lack of empathy are the main features of this cluster called narcissism. On Social Media, it is much easier and accessible for an ordinary person to create a false persona of himself that he can use to deceive his admirers in order to get comfort and acceptance. This is one of those incurable gifts of modernity that do not offer a way back.

Generation Z is unaware of those times when there used to be only one TV channel and the whole country used to wait for 8 o’clock to watch their favorite drama serial with their family. It has no idea about those evenings where family and friends used to get together and enjoy a meal over the everyday conversation. The sharing of books, the exchange of cards, planning picnics and outdoor activities for the kids, writing letters to your loved ones and then waiting anxiously for the postman, and having a ‘real’ life are the antique concepts to be kept in museums for this generation.

This is an era of cyberbullying and cyberstalking where nobody has got time to relish the little pleasures of real life. People with NPD are unaware of the damage they inflict on themselves and the people close to them in an attempt to maintain their pretentious patterns of living. I, lately, talked about the dynamics of a narcissistic relationship and abuse in a university meeting and it was surprising for me to see the absolute ignorance about it even in such an elite educational setting. The lack of awareness about various personality disorders including NPD and the absence of appropriate therapy is one of the core reasons for the isolation, loneliness and depression that generation Z is going through. A wounded brain, thus, finds refuge in the façade of social media where his reality can be hidden and he can inflict damage on anonymous followers without the fear of being called out.

Have you seen a picture taken with your Snapchat camera? A picture with silky smooth skin, without any blemishes, all the features of your face contoured and enhanced, perfect lighting and absolute flawlessness – that is the epitome of a narcissist’s façade. He begins to perceive life in the same way too and an endless chain reaction of digitally beautified masks and fallacious identities sets about.

I have no idea if we are ever coming out of this witchcraft or not but I’d like to share my experience of dissociating myself from social media with you. It might work as a piece of advice too. Do not believe what you see on your timeline, cut your losses short and unfollow everything that brings even an iota of negativity in your life. It is the tale of the Overcoat that Ghulam Abbas wrote about years ago. Take some time out and try to read this short story that explains the plight of this narcissistic generation Z so well.