Foursquare check-ins, and Facebook status updates? Justin Frank, a psychoanalyst and Daily Beast contributor, regards these new forums as a positive form of self-regard, an opportunity for psychological “self-repair” in which individuals can achieve the feeling of being applauded that may have been lacking in childhood. In this sense, Frank says, there’s something valuable about the availability of a venue for a fragile ego to pump itself up, without resorting to the dangerous behaviors so common among the personality disorders.

Not everyone agrees. In the Facebook culture of banal declarations—in which “So and So is waiting for the cable guy!!” is followed by a chorus of enthused “So and So Likes This” responses—Frank Yeomans, a professor of psychiatry at Cornell Medical School, sees an “infantile narcissism” playing out. Facebook, he says, is like “an adult show and tell. If you’re a 2 year old, it’s normal that you say boo and everybody thinks, you’re so great. And if you’re 3 and you tie your shoes, everybody says that’s wonderful. A truly mature adult can pat himself on the back. He doesn’t need everyone around him to do it for him.”

Casey Schwartz (via soupsoup)

the truth about facebook status and foursquare chek-ins ..guilty!!!

Source: soupsoup

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  4. cr-db said: Very true. Those people don’t need to know I just took a shower and mowed my lawn.
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  15. sonic-hip-attack reblogged this from soupsoup and added:
    Excuse you? That’s like saying OCD should be taken out of the DSM because it’s healthy and evolutionarily sound to worry...