Narcissism of Selfie-Culture as a Way of Self-Presentation

The article explores the phenomenon of selfie-culture, emphasises its demand for the imperatives of consumer society and the requirements of the information age. Selfie-culture is considered as a fashionable trend and actual mainstream, determining the vector of social and individual aspirations. The positive and negative properties of selfie-culture are analysed, its contradictory content and ambiguous consequences for the existence of an individual and society as a whole are underlined. Different characteristics of selfie-culture are revealed — as a social marker and regulator, an identifier, a way of self-knowledge and self-presentation. Narcissistic and compensatory components of selfie-culture are traced. The peculiarities of the impact of this phenomenon on thinking and cognitive abilities and possibilities of an individual are investigated. Attention is focused on how excessive fascination with selfie-culture deforms the world of real experiences, way of thinking and acting, contributes to the emergence of feelings and impressions far from reality, how virtual images form the space of illusions and false representations, how the natural and authentic acquire distorted features.