Humanistic antidotes for a narcissistic social media addicted society

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article describes ‘humanistic antidotes’ to offset the widespread narcissism and social media addiction prevalent in current US society. The dominant focus of this article is in humanistic education, in which the author’s efforts at getting psychology college students to put away their cell phones, ‘talk with each other’, and gain awareness of the detrimental effects of social media addiction and narcissism are illustrated. In addition, the author’s facilitation of a creative artists’ support group is briefly described as another illustration of humanistic antidotes to the widespread narcissism and social media addiction in US society. The methodology utilized is based upon autoethnographic research, where relevant experiences of the researcher are considered to be an informative and fundamental part of the research. The author describes in narrative form his relevant experiences in formulating humanistic antidotes to the excessive and inappropriate use of social media he encountered in his c...