In January 2008 a British journalist, Sarfraz Manzoor, wrote an article with the title “Me, Me, Me” that appeared in the magazine “Esquire”. He gives his opinion on how the phenomenon “New Narcissism” has its influences on today’s society through the Internet. And he leaves us with the impression that there is a reason to be worried about today's youth being more narcissistic than ever before.

Narcissism is not new for us. New Narcissism is a modern version of the phenomenon narcissism. And it has been known since ancient Greece with the Greek myth about Narcissus that fell in love with his own reflection in the water. The man that got narcissism recognized as a medical condition was Sigmund Freud (l. 53). But in our age, the word, narcissism, does not seem that serious and is mostly defined as a phenomenon. This New Narcissism has come to life because society reproduces itself (l. 59). And growing numbers of people are more narcissistic according to a study performed by psychologists. Sarfraz Manzoor, who has written this article, describes that New Narcissism is the offspring of today’s society. He makes an example by including a person named Chris Crocker. Crocker became famous because he put a video on the Internet where he defended the celebrity Britney Spears. There can be two reasons for his behaviour. Is he doing this to tell people that they shall back off and because he is fond of her? Or is he doing this to get attention? But it does not seem as if Britney is the main focus. It is the Britney-obsessive Crocker who draws your attention. Chris Crocker is like a sick howling animal “leave Britney alone!” (l. 9) into a camera. This quote has made him so popular on the website, YouTube, that people from all over the world have watched the video more than 12 million times (l. 23) – today 41,6 million times. But Crocker did not feel sorry for Britney, he just wanted to get a lot of attention and become a celebrity himself. He got his 2 minutes and 12 seconds of fame and a few days later Chris Crocker announced, he was in the process of making a new reality show on national television (l. 17-19). This is a great example of new narcissism, Chris Crocker intentionally tries to get attention on Britney’s account, a very selfish and egocentric act and that is what new narcissism is all about. But the reason that nobody dismissed him as being crazy is due to the fact that he is a victim of the paradoxical development of our modern culture where everybody wants to be famous. He is a product of society. Manzoor makes a parallel reflection to the myth of Narcissus, stating that Crocker “is holding up a mirror to ourselves.” (l. 119), because Chris Crocker thinks that his simple opinion is something the world ought to know.
Sarfraz Manzoor is using a very strong ethos throughout the article. He presents several experts like Sigmund Freud, the father of physiology, professor Jean Twenge and his San Diego State University study, social critic Christopher Lasch, plastic surgeon Dr. Maurizio, author Simon Crompton, managing director of BeautifulPeople.net Greg Hodge and author Andrew Keen. He uses all these experts in a very professional way. At first, he builds up his point, and then supports it with the expert. For example when Manzoor introduces the social networking sites as part of the problem. He starts with statements from managing director of the highly controversial dating-site BeautifulPeople.net (l. 74-75), where he focuses on the members’ need for validation, and then Manzoor backs it up with statistics of how many people use blogs and videos. He also mentions an article from Times Magazine that has announced that the “person of the year” was “you” (l. 83). And this is exactly the point that Manzoor gets. He disagrees with Times Magazine, because it seems as if they are making positive spin with this narcissistic title, as Sarfraz Manzoor states “What Time neglected to mention was that most of the internet content comprising the “Information Age” is bollocks” (l. 85-86). Manzoor does not like that bloggers, users of Facebook, MySpace and Tweeter are all focusing on the same subject: telling about him or herself (l. 89-90). And because of this, he is worried. He uses logos; when he is saying that no own but themselves want to hear about what they had for breakfast (l. 61) or what they did at the last party just like the celebrities. He is talking to people’s common sense that other people are not interested.
Returning to Chris Crocker and Britney Spears, Manzoor is using pathos. He describes Britney Spears’ attempted comeback in sympathy with this failed performer (p. 1, l. 15). And then he goes on to describe Crocker. Sarfraz Mazoor uses very prejudiced adverbs to describe his video, such as “horribly, gruesomely and shamefully compulsive viewing” (l. 15). The reason for this comment could be due to the fact that he sees it as a bad thing that Crocker is trying to take advantage of Britney’s bad situation. And because of this he describes Crocker as “attention-seeking, internet-enabled and celebrity-crazed” (l. 114). He paints a dramatic image of Chris Crocker; “he howls into the ether, tears streaming down his mascara-smudged face.”(l. 9). This stands in sharp contrast to the very well reasoned and factual tone used in the rest of the article.

Narcissism is when you only think of yourself and your own needs – exclusively. It is when you are so self-obsessed that you are unable to see anything else but your own reflection. But the New Narcissism means that people today are willing to do anything to achieve fame and attention for their own benefits. Sarfraz Mazoor’s main point is that, with New Narcissism being at centre stage in our culture, we all believe that we are the single most interesting person in the world. The key role that Chris Crocker has in Sarfraz Manzoor ‘s main argument is highlighted by the use of pathos when describes Chris Crocker, and almost exclusively ethos to back it up. This gives the argument all the drama of pathos, yet all the credibility of ethos. He then concludes that Chris Crocker is, after all, just reflecting back the culture that produced him, which is they key point: That a narcissistic society turns us all into Chris Crockers.