You blog vanity.

     Have you heard about the ‘New Narcissism’ yet? It’s not dissimilar to the new Coke, except for the fact that it’s in digital form. In an attempt to be as hip and relevant as some of their better read competition, MacLean’s, the right-wing rag most often found in doctor’s offices, ran an article on people who love themselves too much and the technologies that enable their detached behaviour (link). Aside from the mildly authoritative observations from academia, the article seems to provide little more than a profile on an industry that capitalises on narcissism. Perhaps this is all that can be asked of the writer because, to rephrase the adage on new media, “new narcissism is old narcissism.”

New media is just old media (visuals, audio, text) created and distributed with new tools. The above article is the same on the Internet and in print, except one can be accessed differently. The same can be said of the new Narcissism. Instead of staring at one’s image in a pool of water, the narcissist can use a digital camera. Regardless, both are doomed to a life detached from how others see them.

The article started out on an interesting note with its unflattering profile of video blogger Michael Tyas. I was curious, so I Googled him, and to my surprise Tyas is the exceptionally gregarious kid who works at a sandwich shop in Orangeville. The writer had styled him into a self-important asshole, so I could not make the connection between the happy sandwich artist and the conceited prick from the article. That was before I watched his one-year anniversary video and read his lengthy rebuttal to the MacLean’s article. Both show an individual who does not have a realistic grasp of their place in the world. But such are the musings of “an ordinary individual” leading an extraordinary life.”

In the aforementioned video, Tyas becomes frustrated when the noise of passing cars and an airplane inconvenience him during the recording of an address to visitors. His frustration is genuine and suggests that Tyas sees himself as the centre of the world that he journey’s through. This is even more evident when he posted to defend himself and correct an inaccuracy in the article. He defends himself against a charge of solipsism by arguing that his media consumption habits and intent to study international relations counter such an allegation. While guilty of getting his epistemic systems confused, Tyas was never referred to a solipsist or used as an example of what one might be like. This leaves me thinking that in his personal interpretation of the article, he was mentioned throughout. This would be quite unfortunate, but I can understand how he might arrive at such a reading. The author set Tyas up to be a pitiful victim of the new narcissism.

A acquiantance of mine produces anniversary videos that are directed in the form of digestable Behind the Music rockumentaries. He complains that his job is to combine the boring lives of two equally boring people, and turn them into an interesting video. In most instances, he can parse both lifetimes into a six minute video. It’s not that he cut corners, it’s just that most people’s lives are too unremarkable to warrant a longer treatment. I think that most video blogs are the same. If I wanted to know about the lives of middle class young people with access to media creation tools, I’d sit in a mall food court and watch these same people play with their camera phones and what not. Like the new Coke, I hope that the new narcissism fizzes out and is lost to memory.