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glitterbox's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide
jmrhike's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
juliacook18's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
This was a really interesting read - I definitely absorbed a lot of informative and relevant information about individualism and one’s sense of self/identify. At times the text was a bit dense for me and I found the second half to be more interesting and digestible
ingread27's review against another edition
4.0
Like many, I thought this book was going to be about the impact of social media on today's generation of selfie-obsessed youth (and adults). Instead, it was a very thorough history of the psyche from Aristotle and the Greeks, to Freud, to Ayn Rand, and into the politics of the 70's and 80's through to today's selfie generation. While the history seemed long and tedious at times, I also felt it was that history that enabled Storr to come to conclusions he came to about today's selfie-generation. It was a clear path from the origins of self-esteem (undeniably important in a society of productive and happy people) to narcissism, which was then fueled intensely by social media and smartphones. Social Media didn't cause narcissism, narcissism has been a long time coming and social media only fanned the flames of something that was already in progress.
As someone who likes learning about psychology and sociology, I found the history and theories very interesting, and appreciated the line of reasoning from beginning to end of book. I found myself quoting the book or alluding to it in many conversations after I read it, so I must say it had a positive impact in my understanding of the topic.
I listened to the audiobook on Audible, and i will say that the narrator was terrible. He sounded like the cross between an overzealous newscaster and an automated GPS voice. It wasn't so bad that I had to stop listening, but it sure made it tough to enjoy the book. Nonetheless, the writing came through strong and I'm glad I stuck with it.
As someone who likes learning about psychology and sociology, I found the history and theories very interesting, and appreciated the line of reasoning from beginning to end of book. I found myself quoting the book or alluding to it in many conversations after I read it, so I must say it had a positive impact in my understanding of the topic.
I listened to the audiobook on Audible, and i will say that the narrator was terrible. He sounded like the cross between an overzealous newscaster and an automated GPS voice. It wasn't so bad that I had to stop listening, but it sure made it tough to enjoy the book. Nonetheless, the writing came through strong and I'm glad I stuck with it.