Derek Murray and Selfie consumerism in the Narcissistic Age

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In Derek Murray’s essay on the selfie, he focuses largely on the ill effects of the selfie on young women and also looks at the affliction to take selfies in contrast to narcissism.

While also being a advocate for the advancement of technology and being aware that the selfie provides and indispensable alternative to self love and self healing, Murray being a man, cannot surmise just what exactly selfie taking brings to the young adult. Derek compares the act of taking selfies with a kind of narcissistic personality forgetting the fact that most of his statistics seem to be those taken from men rather than women, and from relatively poorer countries rather than the first world country he is from. In doing so, a really important question is brought to mind; does the fact that Derek himself is neither of these things, affect his judgement?

Murray’s article reminded me a lot of this post, that forced me to ask the question, why do we feel the need to classify Women’s self love as vanity? Is it to feel better about ourselves over objectifying women? Is it to justify obsessing over their physical features because they themselves are obsessing over them? Why is it vanity when a woman looks at herself but not when we do the same?

Much to think about...

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