It's not your fault you're a narcissist

I'm spending today going through my notes from Jean M. Twenge's work on the prevalence of narcissism in "Generation Me." Anyone born from the mid 70s to the mid 90s falls into this GenMe category, also commonly referred to as GenY, iGeneration and the Mellenials.

I was drawn to Twenge's work because she is one of the few social psychologists to produce theories on how generations differ from each other using actual hard data. Her research has demonstrated that GenMe is a generation of narcissists. Or least that narcissism has risen dramatically in recent decades. In fact, Narcissistic personality traits rose just as fast as obesity from the 1980s to the present, especially in women.

This one tid-bit from Twenge's book The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement sent me off on a flurry of writing today:

"The web serves as a conduit for individual narcissism…The Internet allows people to present an inflated self-focused view of themselves to the world and encourages them to spend hours a day contemplating their images."

Well, she nailed that one on the head.

So we are narcissistic sometimes. But guess what. It's not our fault. *Whew*

We have been raised to be self-loving. I'll have to thank Mr. Griffith, my fourth grade teacher for this. Think back to your days in junior school, middle school and high school. How often were you told that you are special? That you are unique? That the most important this is that you love yourself? My favourite is the advice that what other people think about you doesn't matter (because they aren't important, only you are important). And I'm sure, if your family is anything like mine, this "you are special" talk only got louder when you got home.

The argument was that a child with strong self-esteem, (something that studies had show was low in many children) would be more likely to do well in school, relationships and life.

So over the years, changes have been made to school curriculum in North America. Do you remember working on projects titled "All about me"? Chances are you've made a few of those. You also likely had teachers that went easy on grading because they either thought you were a stellar individual or because they didn't want to damage your self-esteem. There has been a movement develop across North America against criticizing children too much. Twenge tell us that in the States, office stores have started carrying large stocks of purple pens, because the red ink is too "scary" for kid's papers and might lower self-confidence.

Of course, we weren't told these things and treated gently so that we would grow up to be a bunch of self-admiring narcissistic jerks. Rather, we were raised in this way to build self-esteem and confidence. A dramatic increase in narcissistic personality traits was just an unintended side-effect.

I remember friends in undergrad spending hours a day picking out profile pictures, or creeping through friends photos - or just creeping through their own photos, deleting any that aren't flattering (and yes, I've wasted my fair share of hours doing the same thing). Why do we do this? Because we want other people to know how special we are. It is important to us, since we feel so strongly about it, that the world also be aware of our "uniqueness".

How many of your friends bring cameras to parties or special events? I mean, really, what's the point in having an amazing night out if you can't visually brag to your online following about it the next day?

This probably all seems very natural to you if you are part of GenMe, but there was a time, not so long ago, when people didn't behave like this, when they placed duty ahead of individual needs. Twenge goes as far as linking the economic crash of 2008 and the high levels of divorce to this growing narcissistic tendency in people. We no longer care what others think and prioritize our happiness above all else, so why the heck wouldn't a couple get divorced if they weren't happy? Who cares if they look "bad" in the eyes of the neighbourhood...but they probably don't because divorce is so common anyway.

Try taking note of how much time and thought you put into your self-constructed online image, you might realize you have some narcissistic tendencies too.

Exploring radio production: finding your natural pitch through sex & other feel good things

Chances are, you don't speak in your natural pitch - or so says Suanne Kelman, my Radio doc prof. We naturally increase our pitch at times when we are angry, happy, and excited (think about how you speak to your grandmother, I know I don't speak to my Nana in the same pitch I speak to my dentist, or boss). Since as children we tend to be excited and happy 90% of the time, most of us grow up speaking in a pitch other than what is natural.

We speak and express ourselves in our true pitch when...well, we experience true relaxation or feelings of physical pleasure. This makes for some embarrassing vocal exercises, but I encourage you to try them anyway.

If you're in media, even if you're not, you should try and get back to your natural pitch. Speaking in you true pitch is beneficial for several reasons:

1. A more resonate voice is less strain on you
2. You are doing your vocal cords less damage which means you will be able to speak for longer periods of time without cracking or becoming hoarse
3. Your listeners will enjoy your voice in it's natural pitch far more than something higher or lower

Find your true pitch by placing your hand on your chest and releasing a long, relaxed hum or sigh. Think of something relaxing or happy while you do this. You will know when you hit your true pitch because the sound will be full (not loud, but full) and will cause a vibration in your chest.

Take this tone and try holding onto it while you read out loud. It will make you a better radio host, broadcaster and storyteller.

Five things to consider when making a radio doc

And now for some more self-indulgent rambling about radio production.

Today, our six hour radio doc class featured a visit from CBC radio producer and former Ryerson radio professor, Steve Wadhams. We spent the morning discussing the journey from rough clips to finished product and breaking down the ebb and flow of effective story-telling.

Steve's list of five things to ask yourself when making a radio doc

1. Did you go anywhere?

You always want to take the listeners somewhere.

2. Did you meet anyone interesting?

You need to introduce your audience to someone they

3. Did you learn anything?

Did your audience walk away from your piece with information they didn't possess coming into it?

4. Radio isn’t what you hear its what you feel.

This isn't a question, but it is important. If you want a question, consider, what does your radio doc make listeners feel? How do your listeners feel during and after they listen to it? How do your characters feel? Do their feelings come across?

5. Is there a surprise?

People love and want surprises. There needs to be a conflict, something unexpected to jar your audience into attention.

Adding imagery to your scene:

Take advantage of the homes of the people you interview. The places they live and things they have might tell you they have no money, or a lot of money and no taste. Student housing tells you something.

I.e. someone’s home, if described right, can tell you a lot about them,

Things about they way they organize the spaces they live in give you some indication of character, history and social standing.

Look for quick indicators, something that will convey meaning quickly. I.e. A wall unit, is it Ikea? Is it built in dark wood?

Consider what the view is from the living room, what is the front lawn like.

Exploring radio production, episode 1

This past weekend I produced a short radio scene for a radio doc course I'm taking in the last semester of my MJ program. It's a great class because it pushes me to apply my background in writing and online editing in ways I have never done before. I've made short podcast-like web hits for the Globe, but nothing quite as elaborate as this.

Let me start by saying that anyone who has any real radio experience will not find this elaborate. This is one step up from hooking your recorder into a phone, calling a foreign correspondent and and asking them something for the sake of an audio hit online.

Where a reporter audio hit might take me 20 minutes from picking up the phone to pressing play on my browser, this four minute scene required that I pay a visit to the Muay Thai studio in question, interview various potential characters, and awkwardly linger on Queen Street with my recorder waiting for the traffic to sound extra-trafficy. I then spent two hours recording and rerecording roughly 80 sound bites for my voice-overs (I wasn't very efficient early on).

The actual editing was the easy part. Getting my voice to sound natural...that was the tricky business. Next time I think I'll spend more time script writing and will definitely have an Americano right before recording (if you pay attention, you can hear the energy fading from my voice in various clips throughout the piece).

Alright, there's two self-serving pieces of storytelling in one package. Brilliant.

Indefinite hiatus

I am a taking an indefinite hiatus and will no longer be contributing regularly to this blog. So if you are curious to know what I'm watching or reading you'll just have to ask!

In the meantime, here's "Catfish," a fantastic documentary about the dangers of love on Facebook.

Walter Astrada's documentary "Undesired", about the terribile treatment of women and girls in India

Abortion is illegal in India, gender-based abortion is not.

Walter Astrada's 12 minute documentary "Undesired", uses video and photography to depict a world where women are consistently undervalued, seen as useless, costly and burdensome.

In India, all women must confront the cultural pressure to bear a son. The consequences of this preference is a disregard for the lives of women and girls. From birth until death they face a constant threat of violence. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/undesired

God Grew Tired of us

From Sudan to the United States, the Lost Boys of Sudan. A National Geographic doc

Animated look at Oil Sands production

Alberta sits on one of the largest recoverable oil patches in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia. In part 1 of this short, we are shown how oil is extracted from the bitumen.

Of all of the world's water supply, only 0.5% is accessible drinking water. It takes four barrels of fresh water to produce one barrel of oil. It seems that we value oil before water, but for how much longer?

5 minutes of Syria

5 minutes of Syria from Ruslan Fedotow on Vimeo.

BBC Horizon 2010 - What Happened Before the Big Bang?

This is wonderful. Hands down the best space doc I have seen this year. I tip my hat to BBC.

Much of this doc takes place at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo. We hear from the brightest minds in theoretical physics that one of the 20th centuries greatest scientific ideas might have to be thrown out. So what did happen before the big bang?