While Facebook appeals to the seducer in us, Instagram fuels the anxious narcissist, according to new research which links psychoanalysis and digital platforms.
YOU ARE THE MAIN CHARACTER: Whatever you post on social media reflects directly on you, according to a media researcher who has just released a new book on digital media.
Photo: Unsplash+.
Just a little tap or two, and the wrinkles are gone, your lips are softer, and you can become a better version of yourself. At least on Instagram. But if you make a similar tap on Twitter, now X, and are unfortunate enough to write something political that comes across the wrong way, your life can take a brutal turn.
These are examples of how social media shape our lives. And how they play on the unconscious within us, something Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the father of psychoanalysis, first introduced in his theory of the unconscious mind.
"Freud's psychoanalysis is not entirely respectable in academia. He talks about the oral stage early in our development where the mouth is the erogenous zone, followed by the anal stage, when we learn to use the bathroom. All this bodily stuff is embarrassing to be confronted with," says Steffen Krüger.
But Krüger, who is a media researcher at the University of Oslo, has not been deterred. In the new book Formative Media - Psychoanalysis and Digital Media Platforms, he uses perspectives from psychoanalysis to explore how Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, and Twitter/X bring out different sides of our personality.
Connecting psychoanalysis to modern media
The unconscious is contradictory and filled with conflict. And it permeates everything. Yet, it is rare to connect psychoanalysis to modern media and digital platforms as Krüger does in his research.
Have you just posted some pictures of yourself on Instagram and are feeling a strange mix of anxiety and self-obsession? According to Krüger's theory that is not surprising, because Instagram nurtures the anxious narcissist who craves validation.
"In recent times, the connection between narcissism - characterised by self-centeredness and self-love - and popular culture has been dismissed. However, I believe it is a significant and accurate explanation for why we take selfies. The more insecure we are, the more we strive to present ourselves perfectly to get attention and to feel loved and seen," says Krüger.
In 1914, Sigmund Freud wrote an essay that became formative for the understanding of narcissism. He distinguished between a form of narcissism that is normal in human development and narcissistic personality disorder.
While psychoanalysis has had a strong academic tradition in Germany, where Krüger hails from, it has not had the same prevalence in Norway.
"It took a little time before I found my way in Norway and made a breakthrough in the academic field with projects that connect psychoanalysis to media and communication."
