POCKETFUL OF POSERS

Psychologists Jean M Twnege and W Keith Campbell in their 2009 book concluded that we are in the age of a narcissism epidemic. However, such a conclusion begs the question, whether narcissism has actually increased or whether it has become more visible.

A quick glance at your Facebook or Twitter friend list should make one thing clear: among the hundreds of your friends, it's all too easy to spot the narcissists. What's noteworthy though is not the number of self-obsessed individuals in your list but rather the fact that we may now call way too many people friends. And the posers among them were pre-programmed to stand out.  
A poser is a person whose presence exudes hot gas. He is all talk, exaggerating the slightest of accomplishment, embellishing it with all flavours of excitement. It's not that he is dishonest; rather, he is delusional.
The poser also seeks constant attention and not in a cute way. They make it a point to keep you updated on every movement they make. They hold true to the belief that Facebook is a mirror and Twitter is a megaphone.
So why should they not make full use of the social media that we all frequent? Whether what the poser has to show or say is interesting is the least of their worries. What matters is the style of delivery with the substance not even meriting an after-thought.  

A successful foray in the bathroom early morning is cause enough for an enthusiastic, self-congratulatory tweet and if you are lucky a picture of the breakfast is soon to follow. Of course, not everything that goes up on social media stays up for the posers. Whilst the lesser among us would forget a status posted two days ago, a poser watches the 'Likes' and 'Re-tweets' accumulate.
If the post doesn't garner much reaction, the thought is repeated, either ad verbatim or re-phrased with more adjectives and abstract nouns. Upper case letters aren't wasted and plenty of thought is put into the emoticons. The grammar is for the Nazi police to point out. Posers have other things to worry about.

Left to their own devices, posers are harmless. But integrated into a society of one billion people, the number of Facebook users worldwide, the problem becomes an epidemic.
"I have sometimes liked people's posts not because I appreciated it but because I kind of felt sentimentally obligated to," explains 26-year Anika Moinuddin, an entrepreneur. Having her own business, Anika appreciates the reach of social media and its application as a marketing tool. But there is a price of spreading your own message and it is not monetary.
"Since I want my business to be spread to as many people possible I always have to invite my friends to 'Like' my page and reciprocate when they do so," Anika continues. Thus for the poser making himself more believable is important and he understands that 'Likes' mean credibility.  He may initially go out of his way to please others, expecting the same in return. The 'Likes' transform to a social token of appreciation and the story, howsoever exaggerated, becomes all too real. It's right out of the mainstream media's playbook.  
Again, when you consider Facebook's user-base, it's pertinent to remember that although one post from a poser may not reach all of them, it will reach thousands. And most likely, these thousands may just be closely associated with the post in question, be it geographically or otherwise. This is when the poser's braggadocio becomes a social problem.

Although this may sound laughable, there have been incidents of individuals changing entire career paths based on the number of likes their posts received. While some have actually done well, others have been fed on by 'well-wishers' who left obligatory messages of praise on people's cell-phone photography, make-up methods or self-designed clothes. This sudden rush of appreciation has resulted in its fair share of failed start-ups.
"I had a friend who latched into the idea of starting her own boutique based on a few designs of her that her Facebook friends had praised," Akibul Islam, a recent graduate of marketing recalls. The individual in question had over 800 friends on her list, generally a red flag, and it was no wonder that each of her posts managed a few hundred 'Likes.'
"Egged on by friends she hardly missed, she started her boutique and started approaching those same people to place orders and like her page." While the strategy worked in the first months, soon the orders dried up and only praises graced her posts. But words are wind and wind doesn't bring money, so the business soon bit the dust.

The above illustrates best that the problem in question is not only for friends of the poser but for the poser himself. He may indeed act too harshly on delusions fed by false compliments. But how can the poser avoid the built in pitfalls of social media?
Social media itself has now transformed from a place to keep tabs on people you know to becoming an extension of our own identity.
"It's about curating your own image, how you are seen, and also checking on how others respond to this image," said Elliot Panek, one of the researchers of the study titled Computers in Human. The research by U-M researchers sampled 486 college students and 93 adults to establish a link between narcissism and social media.
It was found that those displaying narcissistic trends tended to post more on social media and spend less time reading others posts. Both sets used social media differently but both were seen seeking the approval of their peers.
This is where the poser's real problem lies. Approval and encouragement are given openly in social media. It is a public platform where everyone is well aware of the need to maintain their image. Thus, harsh words are hard to come by and when many among us like or comment on a post, the rest of us follow like sheep. Call it herd mentality or something else; despite the disregard for posers, the users themselves fan the flames.  

Going back to the opening thought, it's clear to see that the posers have always existed in large numbers. It's just that their views are now easier to air and amplify. Also, like breeds like, and as the posers come out, others follow the same way. We fuel the whole fire and watch it spread, complaining when it burns, watching in awe when it does not.
In fact, social media is quite poetic in how it transforms us all into larger than life caricatures of ourselves. And it's even more wondrous how we all start believing in the caricature. Until of course the curtains come down and we stop boasting about ourselves. That curtain is called marriage and unfortunately it's a temporary one.
Soon, the boasts will be about our new hubby/wifey, then vacation pictures and then kids. That's how the poser is immortalised.