Back

Paris and Social Media Narcissism

Written by Beckerman PR |

When large-scale human tragedy occurs – particularly in a place like Paris, the world’s number one international tourist destination and a familiar city for Westerners – it elicits a wide range of (very public) reactions, very quickly. And, for better or worse (usually both), social media provides a polluted sandbox for all of it, from the earnest and reflective, to the flagrantly political and self-serving.

After the Paris attacks, a stand-up bit from deliberately offensive and usually correct comedian Anthony Jeselnik made its rounds. To paraphrase the routine from 2014, Jeselnik asserts that hollow displays of “sympathy” (i.e. “my thoughts and prayers”) ultimately amount to little other than saying “Don’t forget about me today.”

It’s not news that social media both provokes and subsists on the narcissism of its user bases. And while I don’t intend to imply that the majority of Facebook and Twitter users consciously posted out of self-interest, let’s just say that I found out that many of my friends visited the Eiffel Tower once.

I suppose that maybe the argument can be made that, in aggregate, the millions of tweets sending “condolences” or the Facebook users layering a French flag over their profile pictures actually subverts ISIS’ attempt to dissuade unity among Western allies. Maybe. But, suffice it to say, very few Westerners rushed to the e-support of the Lebanese people the day before, when ISIS suicide bombers hit Beirut, a modern and in many ways “Westernized” city in Lebanon. The same can be said of various ongoing conflicts, from Western Africa to Syria.

One of the problems here is that the social media landscape further reinforces the cultural striations that drive the terrorist organizations themselves – it’s the perceived “West,” and seemingly everyone else. In the case of Paris, the collective narcissism of the social media world manifests as an ethnocentric attitude that focuses our attention primarily on places with which we can personally identify. This, of course, is human nature – we care about what we know – but the end result is a sloppy and reductive interpretation of who and what matters most.

The “Post” button is an alluring siren, and we’ve all fallen victim to the temptation of sharing well-intentioned public expression online that is ultimately misguided. And while these symbolic gestures can appear innocuous, even generous, they can also be diminishing, oversimplified, and self-centered expressions about the complex problems facing our world.