To Catch A Narcissist: Social Media Addition #DebateThis
I think a discussion of social media wellness should always include discussions about how to spot a narcissistic individual online, because getting involved with a narcissist is kind of similar to getting gum in your hair. It can be really difficult to get it out, and sometimes you got to get the scissors. So today's debate is what is the number one way we can spot a narcissist online, and why?
I love how you've done this, from the way that you've set it up and the likes, and even asking us to narrow it down to one thing. Although I have to say that's really difficult because I usually use a constellation of things to triangulate to see if this person is or isn't. Because, you know, we're human. We all have our weird moments and responses
And then once they maybe have you roped in, then they can take you more for granted and I would expect maybe lean more into the abusive side of it, unless they realize there's too much there and you're starting to ease away and they don't want to lose their supply. So then they might start love bombing again. I don't know
But what it does do is it opens you up to being abused by them, so you have to engage with them and you can be damaged in it. So it's a good way to spot it. But is it the best way or can we kind of catch this even before interactions start so that we don't even have to open up ourselves to be in that abusive situation? And that's the question that I hope we can answer in this thread
Creative Reader
@MoonPoet · 4:10
And it's not necessarily social media to me, it's just that that stuff kind of thrives in anonymity. So when you hear like oh, social media has created a generation of narcissists, what I would say is that when we connect anonymously or vicariously, it's like fertilizer for these impulses that normally we would restrain. And for most of human history we restrain ourselves when we these dark impulses, especially when we interact physically face to face
And I wonder if we took out the word money and inserted social media, if the quote would still have meaning. Does social media make us more toxic or does it highlight our toxicity? Perhaps that's the next debate. But thank you for inspiring the point. And then you get to your reasoning on how to spot a narcissist online, and you talk about whether or not someone would show they respect boundaries, which obviously is a really good one because personality disorders all personality disorders
Individuals kind of have to reckon with and to be able to become who they are and separate themselves from the familial influences that may have hindered their progress and development. And that tends to be where narcissistic people can't really explain to you that now perhaps a psychopath could. A really intellectual psychopath, like, for instance, am I a psychopath? Maybe I'm a psychopath
And look at the friends list of itself, if it's open to for you to see who are the people they're following. Like for instance, I noticed with a lot of narcissistic men online, they'll be following sometimes people that these are professional men out there in the professional world and they'll be following and friends with people who look like they're strippers and those are people that are engaging with them in posts
I mean, the way that things went down at the end, without getting into details, because this person is known I stepped out of the relationship. But then she proceeded to tell anyone and everyone a long diatribe of how evil and awful I was making things up, exaggerating things, taking things out of context. And apparently it was quite the thing to be on the other end receiving all of that because anyway but it does the same thing, right?
And that is so that when the relationship ends, and it will, however it ends, they have a group of allies that they can turn to that will not only defend them from any attacks on their character, but will also go to great lengths to defend them by further attacking the target. And so they know they're going to need to pull on that favor at some point
Oh, interesting. I assumed that there was some notion of self beneath the facade and just an insecure self, so I think of them as just needing great big hugs. I mean, not literally, because I know it doesn't work, but like, oh, that's really interesting