Billy Corgan Says Facebook is Creating a Generation of Narcissists

originally posted by: rukia
a reply to: yesyesyes

That might come down to lazy/absent parenting and a lack of instilling core values. Not spending enough time with children. Not teaching them to have pride in their work. I went to school with tons of people like this. They had no drive. Perhaps that's because they're starting to realize that the rat race is stupid. But they're going about fighting it in the wrong way.

You have to play the game to win, after all.

I think your last line sums up the change.

People used to be taught to play the game as honestly and as fairly as possible, but they did not see the rat race for what it was. It is a trade of for quick cleverness for suitable results, but I think the quality of the output has declined. The gloss is more important than the structure somehow...

a reply to: rukia

He's not nearly as bad as Axl Rose or Cher's kid from Deadsy. Those guys are "perfectionists" on a WHOLE 'nother level.

I'm really not surprised that Corgan feels this way about FB. He's a deep guy. Mellon Collie was probably the pinnacle of alternative rock for the 90's. I'm STILL uncovering things in that dual CD album years later that my teenage brain didn't get.

a reply to: yesyesyes

Your last line was especially disturbing in that it is so true. I don't understand how people don't see what's going on. Or maybe they just don't care. Truly a brave new world.

It's a lack of integrity.

And that will only ever lead to despair.

So really, in their attempts to raise themselves up on a pedestal, all they are really doing is bringing themselves down lower in the end. The act of "Look at Me" is actually degrading--but they don't even realize it. They're devaluing themselves by making their worth based on worthless qualities. So I guess it makes sense that their actions in real life would be similarly worthless. And yet, look at me: I'm 24 and I still have to finish school. So I'm pretty worthless too, for now.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

This is my favorite. The music video inspired the world in the novel that I've been working on.

originally posted by: rukia
a reply to: yesyesyes

Your last line was especially disturbing in that it is so true. I don't understand how people don't see what's going on. Or maybe they just don't care. Truly a brave new world.

It's a lack of integrity.

And that will only ever lead to despair.

So really, in their attempts to raise themselves up on a pedestal, all they are really doing is bringing themselves down lower in the end. The act of "Look at Me" is actually degrading--but they don't even realize it. They're devaluing themselves by making their worth based on worthless qualities. So I guess it makes sense that their actions in real life would be similarly worthless. And yet, look at me: I'm 24 and I still have to finish school. So I'm pretty worthless too, for now.

Don't be hard on yourself, it is evolution and progress that induces these changes, they are natural. You guys are also the most open and tolerant generation, and also make great inroads through practicality and a new version of ingenuity.

There is a sorrow gripping humanity, a great loss of our old identity, but maybe technology will be well tolerated by many and lead to great deal more leisure and smiling.

I am 35 and I am still in school - this whole change has been very hard on people my age because we were the last to know the analog world which was somehow much more substantive. I can't believe looking at and endless cue of memes and videos is gonna be as fulfilling as being present in the world around you like it used to be.

You used to have to sweat for your money, and work hard to meet a new girl, now you just use your finger, lol

a reply to: rukia

Not just FB.... The whole modern media outlets!

Corgan makes some good points in that interview. Articulated well.


I've always like the Pumpkins. I love sad, brooding music when it's done right.

originally posted by: rukia

The act of "Look at Me" is actually degrading--but they don't even realize it. They're devaluing themselves by making their worth based on worthless qualities. So I guess it makes sense that their actions in real life would be similarly worthless.

It is always nice to have a picture or two to remember/record special events

in ones life.... but the endless daily *selfie* parade is mindless.

When watching TV I mentally switch off when the adverts come on, however

the other day my attention was grabbed by an advert, at first I didn't know

what they were advertising, it was this sentence that got my attention.

"I love it I cant stop looking in the mirror* ( it was an advert for plastic

surgery ) to say I was staggered is an understatement.

My thoughts ... What are we doing to our children? Its no wonder so many of

them suffer from lack of self esteem and body dysmorphia. We should be

teaching them to value themselves for who they are and that there is more

to them than the packaging they come in.

a reply to: rukia

Maybe it's because I'm part of the older generation, but I still can't understand the attraction to having a Facebook, taking selfies, using twitter, texting, and the immense addiction to cell phones.

We did without with all of these electronic gadgets. We communicated face to face not through cell phones or a Facebook. We wouldn't want to offend anyone in person. Employer's judged us by how well we came across in an interview not by spying on a Facebook page. Taking selfies of yourself would cause friends to think you were conceited. Walking around with a phone in your pocket back than would be annoying, considering we didn't like answering the old land phones at home, lol.

TV remotes made us lazy. Parents used us as remotes to change the channels on TV. Technology certainly has it's bad and good points. I can't imagine what technology will be like 100 years from now.

...I love it when everything's about me...

...my face, my book, my wall, my posts, my selfies, my likes...me, me, me, me, me...

This thread's about me, isn't it 😁

Å99

I am not sure that Facebook "creates narcissists" so much, as it gives them a platform, to demonstrate their narcissism.

I would submit that the ideas put forward years ago that we need to artificially "promote self esteem" in children is a big part of the problem. For example the typical "participation trophy" has done more to create an atmosphere for narcissism to grow. Not because the trophy itself had a hand in it, but rather the philosophy behind it is shallow. People are not so stupid as to think they earned anything by getting one. People want to feel special but people also want it to be genuine.

I think they know they did not do anything to earn the trophy and the end result is an inability to make themselves feel special regardless of how many "trophies" sit on the mantel.
The result of this is the desire to look outward to further and further unlikely goal posts, to find their "special place".

In short celebrity worship. In the world of celebrity, one cannot simply be seen, (like an extra in a movie) one has to be seen and commented on. (The Star of the Movie)
I would venture to say this celebrity worship ultimately gave birth to the trinity of stupid "twerking, endless selfies and duck lips."

a reply to: TrueBrit

If you are looking for the best example of a demographic, you do not look at Facebook, you go and find them at the library, or an independent coffee shop, or outside an embassy of a decidedly shady government, holding a well thought out placard and chanting a reasonable demand for change.

As a person on the older side of the Millenniums who works with kids that are 5 to 12 years younger than myself, I do find that your statement is very true. There are a lot of hard working wonderful people out in the world, those people just tend to post on Facebook little to none.

Also, I do not think Facebook 'creates' narcissist, but it 'attracts' them. I like posting on boards where I can 1) focus on discussion and not distractions and 2) do not have to expose my own reality if I chose not to. Facebook is best used to keep in touch with real friends.

Now, if you are being attacked on facebook by people you really know and trust in your life, I would suggest that you have a face to face with them because it is much harder to maintain a narcissist mindset when you are dealing with people face to face.

a reply to: rukia

also a fan of Terence McKenna

I heard that people our going in debt because they're going on nice vacations they can't afford just so they can post pictures to fb, ugh.

I quit a year and a half ago and it's been wonderful!

The super-ego in effect, no?

Freudian

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!! AND TURN DOWN THAT MUSIC!!!

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Facebook is a "thing". It can't force you to do anything, or make you into something unless you let it.

A TV can educate you (a documentary) or it can rot your brain. It all depends on how its used. Just as how people say that a gun doesn't kill people on its own, Facebook doesn't create narcissist.

Narcissists are created by idiots who allow themselves to become self-absorbed.

Which more or less describes the majority of FB users. I think the thing that bugs me the most is when someone goes on there and bashes an ex or someone else that isn't even on their list of friends to defend themselves. It's a loud cry for attention and unwarranted support.

Ex: I have a good friend that lives down the street. He has a big dog that stays in his back fenced in yard. A girl down the street had a dog that would always run up to that fence barking at his dog when the owner would let it out to do its business. My friend's dog never barked back or anything. One day, that dog found a hole in the fence and got into the back yard. My friend's dog ended up killing it.

That chick posted her version of what happened and had probably 30 or 40 different people coming on and saying that they'd go kill my friend's dog in the back yard and sue him and all sorts of retarded #. Her version was that his dog was mean and jumped over the fence and ran into her yard and killed her dog. He wasn't on her FL to tell his version, so when I called her out on it, she deleted me.

That type of stuff happens so often that I quit getting on FB at all. I keep my account active so I can talk to family or send pictures via messenger since cell reception is crap out where I live. If not for that, I'd shut it down. I wish FB would be shut down anyways. The horror from the FB addicts would be priceless to watch.

a reply to: LSU0408

You Rock ... high 5!

Billy Corgan has always been a genius. And apparently has a knack for stating the obvious.

As for me and the OP's suggestion that we all help fix FB. No. Not unless Zuckerberg stops data mining the vapid group think.

originally posted by: awareness10
Believing this fu*cking illusion is reality is real is mind bending in itself.

Billy is right, the world is filled with psychopatic retards...

The older generation always blames the younger you know why...? Because the younger generation can't see clearly until they've aged and then, they understand the crap better. Everyone blames the older generation for not understanding when in reality, they're opening their eyes for the very first f*ing time and thus suddenly 'seeing' for the first time what crap they were fed for the first 40 some odd years of their lives. DING. awake yet?

Agreed... When I was growing up and started driving ('94), I can remember the old people always bitching about the younger people's driving. I always did my best to not be thrown into that category. If not for the older generations bitching at the younger generations, the current "older" generation would have failed. The younger generation NEEDS that discipline. I think that's what Billy is pointing towards and he's absolutely right. Today's younger generation won't listen because their parents didn't make them listen to authority and that can set them up for definite failure. I'm not talking about all younger people, but the majority.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
a reply to: rukia

He's not nearly as bad as Axl Rose or Cher's kid from Deadsy. Those guys are "perfectionists" on a WHOLE 'nother level.

I'm really not surprised that Corgan feels this way about FB. He's a deep guy. Mellon Collie was probably the pinnacle of alternative rock for the 90's. I'm STILL uncovering things in that dual CD album years later that my teenage brain didn't get.

I'll second that......Twice.