The quote above belongs to Lee Humphreys (2018), taking its origin from her book “The qualified self: Social media and the accounting of everyday life.” The quote in question needs to be contextualized as a part of the argument that Humphreys makes in relation to the analysis of the narcissistic trends observed in present-day digital media, specifically in social one.
According to Humphreys, the propensity toward narcissistic attitudes and behaviors in interactions within the modern media context has become excessively high. However, she also makes a valid point by warning against the threat of perceiving any social media interactions deviating from the traditional patterns as narcissistic ones.
Therefore, peculiar behaviors displayed by individuals in the social media environment can be an example of ritualized behaviors accepted in the target context instead of being seen as an example of narcissism manifesting itself.
The contribution that Lee makes by asserting that documenting one’s lived experiences is vital in understanding the multifaceted concept of social interactions and, therefore, should not be perceived as a sign of narcissism is substantially large.
Namely, Lee alleviates the stigma associated with self-expression and the idea of making one’s personal life more public than it is typically perceived as natural. As a result, social media becomes a platform not only for uninhibited self-expression but also for healing and self-therapy. Thus, the significance of Lee’s contribution to the argument is quite large.
Nevertheless, lee’s ideas can be viewed as debatable for several reasons. On the one hand, it is important not to pathologize perfectly healthy online interactions. On the other hand, the described perspective may prevent the identification of signs of narcissistic tendencies in social media users from taking place.
Therefore, while viewing the identified trends as an immediate pathology would be an example of overzealousness, the attitudes under analysis still need to be questioned when growing out of proportion.