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The biggest challenge of this post is that exposing the narcissism of this generation is kind of like describing to a fish the ocean in which it swims. So although some of my points may seem general and at times crotchety, try to bear with me as a reader here. I need to provoke you a bit to shake you into an awareness of the emotional matrix of these times.

In this world that is changing so rapidly, it is becoming commonplace to see conference rooms full of people riding the wave of technological novelty, because the attraction levels are quite high to be in on the latest and greatest. As the turnover rate increases for what ‘the latest and greatest’ actually is(hence the new term, ‘that is so 2007′), the race to lead gets more intense. Interestingly, much of today’s thought leadership has come from a more nuanced style. It is a counter to the top-down models of the past, for which we are thankful (see clue train manifesto), but this doesn’t change the fact that novelty still accounts for 90% of what is going on. People latch on to be significant by being in the know. The new social media leadership is generally determined by how many friends you have on Facebook, and how much traffic you are getting on your blog. Again, nothing inherently wrong with that, especially in contrast with the command and control models of the past. The problem occurs instead when you combine a novelty fascinated culture with an untested model for selecting wise leadership. Writing and reading is just a component of leadership. Writing, friending, and other forms of online networking, at best, create fame principally within a sub-culture that is self-fascinated. The online fame of various high-profile geeks seeking to inherit the earth does not make them experts in other areas (and to their credit, most would be the first to say it). There is in reality a great big world out there populated by very wise people doing wonderful and amazing things offline, but rather than interviewing these people and honoring their work and sacrifice, the technorati of today prefers to blog their own reports, from their own perspective and go before their online peers where the news is welcomed on the scale of them having discovered the new world. If you don’t get anything else said here, beware of this new elitism.

Adding to this, the post-boomer generations have been told in every Disney movie since 1980 that the most important value you can possess is believing in yourself, followed closely with the notion that all expressions of belief have equal value. Face it, there is just no valid counterargument to the fact that this is likely the most self infatuated generation in US history. Not that my generation of the 70’s was much better, but now that most of us who have survived are parents now, we at least have learned what it means to lay self aside for the sake of those coming next. What worries me is that the next generation just might not get started in that path until a much later time. Read on…

So where is the ‘perk’ I refer to wryly in the headline? It is in the fact that today’s technology has enabled us to indulge in self in ways previously unheard of, by minimizing exposure to criticism, and enabling self-congratulatory environments. If you need to find a community of people who agree with you, it has never been easier. Confirmation bias is the term we use for it, defined as seeking out media, friendships and information that confirms our own prejudices, rather than being challenged by hearing ideas from those with different experiences and opinions (parents included!). Today, people just don’t have to hear anything unpleasant to their ears. If you believe global warming is man-made and has doomed us unless we all turn agrarian, there are those who will console you if you are rebutted, and posit reassuring statistics. Of course it works in both ways and in any direction, conviction, opinion and prejudice. Certainly confirmation bias is not new to this generation, but what is new is our ability to isolate ourselves from our conventional neighborhoods where we would otherwise have to process varying viewpoints.

So I hope to do more here than just give you a moment of pause, but instead to give you a chance to reflect and think about how the world of technology affects you, and how you value all the people in your life, as well as the people throughout history, on which your life is indeed built, no matter how non-tech they are. If you don’t buy my assessment, then be in bliss. The narcissist community is growing rapidly.