narcissism

Museums Have Rightfully Started Banning Selfie Sticks

Dayna Evans · 02/17/15 10:48AM

Let's set the scene: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, early afternoon, on a cold winter Sunday. You, an admirer of Impressionism, are taking in a portrait of a woman relaxing by the seashore, painted by French master Renoir. A metal pole and a man in a green Canada Goose jacket appear in front of the painting. He is flashing a dirtbag grin in your direction.

Tom Scocca · 01/02/14 02:03PM

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, formerly known as Nicholas D. Kristof, who took the time to write a special blog post about his decision to stop publishing his middle initial ("D."), now mourns the frivolity of people reading the item that he decided to write.

When to Write a Personal Essay: A Reasonable Standard

Hamilton Nolan · 03/05/13 03:51PM

The past few months have been full of navel-gazing essays about the relative merits of writers writing navel-gazing essays. Blogger Kate Fridkis weighs in with one more this week—a fairly run-of-the-mill heave in defense of personal writing. One argument in particular deserves to be highlighted:

Journalism Is Not Narcissism

Hamilton Nolan · 01/02/13 12:13PM

Every year, thousands of fresh-faced young aspiring journalists flood our nation's college classrooms, in order to learn how to practice their craft. What should we tell them? This, first: journalism is not about you.

Think Piece About Writer's Retweet of Tweet About Writer Marks New Pinnacle of Self-Referentiality

Hamilton Nolan · 08/01/12 01:43PM

Once upon a time long ago, blogs were criticized for making us all more narcissistic and self-obsessed. Then, of course, Twitter came along. And now, the fabled "third wall" of self-referentiality has been breached: a lengthy blog post pondering the implications of a writer's retweet of a tweet about the writer's writing. Tell me: what do you think—about me?

Is It Bad to Nominate Yourself for an Award?

Hamilton Nolan · 04/17/12 10:41AM

Yesterday, New York Times foreign correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman (pictured) won a Pulitzer for his reporting on strife and famine in Africa. Though the Times traditionally decides who of its reporters deserve nominations, Gettleman didn't wait for the bosses—he nominated himself. Does that make him an asshole?

Kim Kardashian Gets Google News Alerts About Herself

Maureen O'Connor · 01/25/12 02:47PM

Photographed exiting a beauty salon in Santa Monica, Kim Kardashian inadvertently revealed that she not only receives Google Alert emails whenever "Kim Kardashian" appears on the internet, but she actually spends her free time reading her personalized "Kim Kardashian" news alerts. This is remarkable for three reasons:

The New Twitter Is Supposed To Get You Laid

Ryan Tate · 12/08/11 04:40PM

There's a famous tech saying that all good social networks begin with the question, "How will this software get my users laid?" Twitter wants you to believe it's new redesign has nailed this particular feature.

Bono Cannot Stop Writing About Himself

Hamilton Nolan · 12/01/11 01:30PM

Bono. This guy. The guy from U2. But you probably know him for being the world's all-around best human. He's not just some rock star that groupies want to bang; he's some rock star who's always writing op-eds about Serious World Issues, which makes an entirely new set of groupies want to bang him.

The Oversharers Win

Hamilton Nolan · 10/12/11 10:32AM

We are now living in a time in which the first generation in history that never experienced life before the internet is coming into cultural power. And it is awful.

The Most Arnold Schwarzenegger-y Moment Ever

Maureen O'Connor · 10/07/11 04:45PM

In a sleepy Austrian hamlet today, a hulking superhuman lovingly caressed the buttock of a grotesquely muscled 8-foot-tall bronze state of himself.

Authorize Fans and Stalkers On Facebook

Ryan Tate · 09/14/11 06:05PM

A new feature from Facebook lets you authorize non friends to "subscribe" to your profile , creating your own personal army of groupies. It's sort of like putting your Facebook into "Twitter" mode, with all the excitement and terror such a combination implies.

Twitter Redesigns Around Your Narcissism

Ryan Tate · 08/10/11 10:34PM

Tired of clicking endlessly on Twitter to find out who is loving you, who is quoting you, who is stalking you and who is talking about you? Good news: The microblogging service just made narcissism way less time consuming.