FODI: The Narcissism Epidemic

Speaker: Anne Manne

The words “Social Media is making us Narcissistic” are often thrown around with a note of Moral Panic and Technological Determinism, Anne Manne, author of “The Life of I” disagrees and sees social media as “more of a megaphone than a cause” in the development of the selfie society.

Manne has written and studied Cultural Narcissism extensively, drawing in the research of Dr Paul Pith, she discusses the rise in feelings of entitlement amongst the increasingly wealthy. Manne also comments on the rise of narcissism in correlation to the prevalence neoliberal economic ideology in western societies, and how parenting has changed in response to larger cultural responses to these policies driving toward individualism in what filmmaker Adam Curtis calls the Century of Self.

A great first event to kick off my Festival of Dangerous Ideas weekend, left me questioning our shifting societal values and “emotional literacy” as we march to the economic drum beats of those who issue statements like “Greed is good” and the “Virtue of Selfishness” with a Treasurer who lumps us into Lifters and Leaners, dishing out rhetoric on the role of Government to support the individual rather than strive for equality.

This ties into the discussion on identity from outside the individual in my previous post.

“Empathy is the cure to narcissisms” – Anne Manne, #FODI