How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us
Selfie by Will Storr explores the roots of Western individualism, how it's shaped by social media, and how our obsession with self-image can lead to disconnection and anxiety. It challenges us to rethink our sense of self and embrace a more empathetic worldview.
What’s the quickest way to feel bad about yourself?
For the author, it’s a look in the mirror. Every time he catches sight of his own reflection, he starts judging his appearance. Why, he wonders, is his stomach so much bigger than it should be? But then again, why shouldn’t it be the size it is – where does the pressure to be slim and toned come from?
Well, our bodily ideals are shaped by the culture we’ve grown up in.
Take weight: A sleek physique is highly prized in the Western world, but that’s not the case everywhere. In Tanzania, for example, the opposite is true. Fat is valued as a symbol of high status.
The Western ideal of the perfect body has a unique history, with roots that stretch all the way back to the earliest European culture: ancient Greece.
Think of the appearance of mythical figures like Hercules or Adonis: they wouldn’t be out of place on the cover of Men’s Health with their chiseled muscles and perfect pelvic v-lines.
That means our ideas about what our perfect selves should look like are still being shaped by the thoughts and beliefs of people who lived more than two-and-a-half-thousand years ago!
But it’s not just body image that’s shaped by culture. The very way we think – our cognition – is also determined by the environment around us.
Most people in the West receive a formal education where they’re taught to analyze and measure information, meaning that they see the world a certain way. As a result, we think that everyone sees things this way, but that’s not the case.
Consider the Himba people of Namibia: They live a semi-nomadic lifestyle completely isolated from the modern world. As they don’t receive a Western education, the Himba consider information differently. When the neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott asked the Himba to analyze the emotional connection to certain sounds, for example, they couldn’t, as Himba culture doesn’t teach that form of thinking.
In short, the way we think about the world is heavily influenced by the culture and society in which we live.
Selfie (2017) takes a hard look at today’s internet-driven age of self-obsession. Asking where our ideal of the perfect person came from, acclaimed British journalist Will Storr traces the history of the self from ancient Greece to the social-media-heavy world of selfies and Instagram brunch pics. Along the way, he picks out a multitude of fascinating facts about the political, cultural and economic factors that have shaped the Western world’s notion of who we should be and what we should look like.
Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.
Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.
Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll
Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.
Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.
Hol dir mit Blinkist die besten Erkenntnisse aus mehr als 7.000 Sachbüchern und Podcasts. In 15 Minuten lesen oder anhören!
Jetzt kostenlos testen
Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
