Informational Paper Final

An obsession with one’s self seems to be a major trend in younger people today. It’s not much of a surprise with all of the social media outlets people are exposed to that continually want kids to talk about themselves. However, is it really narcissism, or are people acting the same way generations before them have? If it is narcissism is it really a bad thing? What’s the harm with wanting to improve your life? While there is much debate over whether today’s younger generation is narcissistic or not, many people feel that narcissism is too hard to define and too broad to be an actual disorder.

China’s younger generation is so obsessed with everything that they want that they are ignoring their horrible political oppression. Currently in China “a recent survey by Credit Suisse, the incomes of 20- to 29-year-olds grew 34% in the past three years, by far the biggest of any age group,” and the young people are so narcissist that they don’t want to upset the “status quo” around them (Elegant). Others outside of the “me” generation are worried “democracy isn’t likely to come to China anytime soon” (Elegant). Because the younger Chinese won't fight for their freedoms, it is clear that the younger generation is narcissistic.

 While most people think today’s younger generation is obsessed with themselves, there are younger people who care about other people.  Chantalle Carles “has developed a project aimed at improving the literacy of children who live in rural areas in the United States” (Woodruff). This is someone who is only 24 years old trying to improve people’s lives around her. She is a strong believer that “[She] is what [she] is because of what we all are” and she just wants to help under privileged children improve their lives (Woodruff). She wants to improve the United States and the people who struggle there, not herself, clearly showing that not everyone in the younger generation is narcissistic.   

Narcissism defines the young generations, but is it really narcissism? Narcissism can be extremely hard to diagnose and each researcher “culls data from different data sets, then applies different algorithms to analyze those data sets, then comes to his own conclusions using the result of his methodology” (Roller). There is no set way to gather if someone is narcissist or not, researchers simply use their own opinions. It is also said that “NPD may be more prevalent among young adults due to developmental challenges in the transition from adolescence to adulthood” (Roller). Many psychologists think that narcissism may not be an actual disorder, merely something in human nature that the younger generation has acquired from their predecessors.