Evaluation of Mainstream Article – Selfies To Narcissism And Psychopathology

This article is a blog that reviews a research on link of selfies to narcissism and psychopathology. There are no charts or statistical figures included in the writing so it seems to be more as a general piece of work rather than professional and it seems that it’s actually written for general population and their level of understanding is kept under consideration. The writer has been biased in writing the research review in this way that he reported only those findings that support his argument of negative trait development due to selfies, the writer has not reported the limitations of the study that warrants further study to be conducted to support that these traits are specific to men and not to women in general.

The writer has reviewed only one article in the blog, though he has talked about other researchers too, that can show evidence or proof that support his argument but this shows that he has collected enough evidence only to support his argument, the writer’s approach seems biased in reporting findings from a research.  Nevertheless, despite having the review being biased and unidirectional, the writer has tried to create awareness for the reader to know that selfies trending have negative effects on an individual’s personality.

Briefly, summarize the mainstream article. Include a discussion of the mainstream article author’s purpose and intended audience.

The article mainly speaks about a research that has been conducted by Ohio State University study, the study was conducted on 800 men, aged between 18-40 years, they were asked to fill in the questionnaire that measured anti-social behavior and self-objectification, how often they posted their selfies and how and whether they edit their photos before posting them.

Narcissism is linked with inflated self-esteem and psychopathology involves lack of empathy and impulsive behavior, the findings of the research have not labeled the men who post slefies as narcissistic or psychopaths but indicates that they lie high on anti-social traits, few studies link use of Facebook with low self-esteem and narcissism and another study linked having unrealistically larger number of friends with narcissistic personality. The current study linked editing one’s photos with higher level of self-objectification and that can be a problem of concern for men and women with growing use of social networking.

The article was written to create awareness among people regarding the negative effects of following new trends of selfies. It seems that the writer wanted to persuade the reader to become conscious of the arising issues in the modern world due to these modern trends and become cautious of development of negative personality traits due to use of these social networking trends. The article is mainly focusing general population and its purpose is to spread awareness, the absence of any scientific terms and statistical figures show that this is actually focusing people with any kind of background.

How accurate was the mainstream source in reporting the results of the study? What did it do well? What could it have done better?

            The mainstream source seems to be biased in reporting results of the study. The writer has not mentioned any limitations and confounding that the study has faced due to which the results of study can be questioned for the accuracy of the measurement. The writer has mentioned findings of the study accurately but he has picked up only those findings that go in favor of his argument. This piece of study is very useful in creating awareness in general population, who don’t study or can’t understand scientific findings; these types of articles are beneficial in reporting the facts and findings that are useful for general population.

It could have mentioned more studies to support its argument and findings of the Ohio state University, it could have used generic terms in describing the results of the study and it could have also mentioned few studies that go against the writer’s argument in order to put the view in front of the readers and not force their thinking to see selfie as negative due to his biased reporting.

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