The Ocean Agency

Today on Mashable , Jennifer Van Der Grove reflected upon the results of a a recent study. A study was conducted by Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at SDSU. The study surveyed over 1,000 college students, asking them about their social media use. In the national poll of college students, “57 percent agreed that that people in their generation use social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and MySpace) for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.”

This study, although not exactly perfect in its design, raises many questions about the end goals of social media usage. On any given day you can read  hundreds of articles that praise the power of social media. As a brand it gives you the potential to interact directly with your customers in a unique way. It allows you to build a community around your brand, and increase brand loyalty. Lastly, visibility through social networks can increase brand awareness and draw in new customers.

On the individual level, “Personal Branding” is a buzz word in the social media world these days. Young people in particular are embracing the notion of creating a buzz around their own personal brand and building a website and interacting online in a way that reflects their skill-sets and potential.

What underlies both individual and corporate social media strategies? Arguably, “Self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.”

But what does this mean? Is social media just a fake world of self-promoters and greedy businesses? Or does it reflect real world interaction, just moved onto a different platform?

I think there are a couple of things going on here.

1) Social media reflects our obsession with fame.

• Anyone can be famous (Spencer Pratt), and now it is easier than ever to do so using social media. Everyone can be a celebrity and have a following with varying degrees of success.

2) Social media reflects our obsession with contrived uniqueness.

• Hot Topic is the perfect example of this. In attempts to be unique, somehow groups of people end up rebelling in the same way. Social media can be viewed this way, we all wanted to stand out, so we joined social networks with hundreds of millions of people.

3) Social media reflects our obsession with  the American Dream and entrepreneurship.

• We love stories when individuals or brands go from rags to riches and online marketers love it even more when they leverage social media to do so. Social media is like the idealized American marketplace, where the playing field is equal, and with the right amount of hustle and intelligence anyone can succeed. Unfortunately, like the American Dream, this story is a rarity rather than an everyday occurrence.

There is a certain amount of narcissism, self-promotion, and attention seeking that determines our everyday interactions, online or off. Social media is just the latest tool to craft our own personalities. Whether for better or for worse, it’s here to stay.