I recently ran across a very stimulating article by Dr. Keith
Albow.
Before you read the comments from Dr. Albow, consider these
words from the Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul.
I am the vine, you are
the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart
from Me you can do nothing. If anyone
does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
– John 15:5-6
“Therefore, be careful
how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time,
because the days are evil.
So then do not be
foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” - Ephesians 5:15-17
Article: We are Raising a Generation of Narcissists
A new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has
accumulated data for the past 47 years from 9 million young adults, reveals
that college students are more likely than ever to call themselves gifted and
driven to succeed, even though their test scores and time spent studying are
decreasing.
Psychologist Jean Twenge, the lead author of the analysis,
is also the author of a study showing that the tendency toward narcissism in
students is up 30 percent in the last thirty-odd years.
This data is not unexpected. I have been writing a
great deal over the past few years about the toxic psychological impact of
media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults, particularly as
it regards turning them into faux celebrities—the equivalent of lead actors in
their own fictionalized life stories.
On Facebook, young people can fool themselves into thinking
they have hundreds or thousands of “friends.” They can delete unflattering
comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their
inflated self-esteem. They can choose to show the world only flattering, sexy
or funny photographs of themselves (dozens of albums full, by the way), “speak”
in pithy short posts and publicly connect to movie stars and professional
athletes and musicians they “like.”
Using Twitter, young people can pretend they are worth
“following,” as though they have real-life fans, when all that is really
happening is the mutual fanning of false love and false fame.
Using computer games, our sons and daughters can pretend they are Olympians,
Formula 1 drivers, rock stars or sharpshooters. And while they can turn
off their Wii and Xbox machines and remember they are really in dens and
playrooms on side streets and in triple deckers around America, that is after
their hearts have raced and heads have swelled with false pride for “being”
something they are not.
On MTV and other networks, young people can see lives just
like theirs portrayed on reality TV shows fueled by such incredible
self-involvement and self-love that any of the “real-life” characters should
really be in psychotherapy to have any chance at anything like a normal life.
These are the psychological drugs of the 21st Century and
they are getting our sons and daughters very sick, indeed.
As if to keep up with the unreality of media and technology,
in a dizzying paroxysm of self-aggrandizing hype, town sports leagues across
the country hand out ribbons and trophies to losing teams, schools inflate
grades, energy drinks in giant, colorful cans take over the soft drink market,
and psychiatrists hand out Adderall like candy.
All the while, these adolescents, teens and young adults are
watching a Congress that can’t control its manic, euphoric, narcissistic
spending, a president that can’t see his way through to applauding genuine and
extraordinary achievements in business, a society that blames mass killings on
guns, not the psychotic people who wield them, and—here no surprise—a stock
market that keeps rising and falling like a roller coaster as bubbles inflate
and then, inevitably, burst.
That’s really the unavoidable end, by the way. False pride
can never be sustained. The bubble of narcissism is always at risk of bursting.
That’s why young people are higher on drugs than ever, drunker than ever,
smoking more, tattooed more, pierced more and having more and more and more
sex, earlier and earlier and earlier, raising babies before they can do it
well, because it makes them feel special, for a while. They’re doing
anything to distract themselves from the fact that they feel empty inside and
unworthy.
Distractions, however, are temporary, and the truth is
eternal. Watch for an epidemic of depression and suicidality, not to mention
homicidality, as the real self-loathing and hatred of others that lies beneath
all this narcissism rises to the surface. I see it happening and, no
doubt, many of you do, too.
We had better get a plan together to combat this greatest
epidemic as it takes shape. Because it will dwarf the toll of any
epidemic we have ever known. And it will be the hardest to defeat. Because, by
the time we see the scope and destructiveness of this enemy clearly, we will
also realize, as the saying goes, that it is us.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/08/are-raising-generation-deluded-narcissists/?cmpid=cmty_other_We_are_raising_a_generation_of_deluded_narcissists
O Father, awaken us to
our utter bankruptcy apart from you. We
are surrounded by messages and influences that lie to us about who we are and
what we need. May your Spirit continue
to convict people as your Son promised He would so that we can see that the Son
is the only one who can truly satisfy us now and forever.
Randy Daugherty
Stephenville,
Texas
