Protagonist Syndrome

Hi everyone, my name is Franz, and I struggle with protagonist or main character syndrome, but so do you; we all do. This idea is baked into our fallen human nature; our Western culture promotes it, and many of us may never realize the forces at work in our psychology and how our world promotes it. Okay, let me slow down; for many, you may be asking, "What the heck is protagonist syndrome?" "Is this yet another mental disorder amongst the litany of others?" Kind of, but it is not new to humanity; it has been with us since the fall the name has just changed. I'll explain, but first, here are some Google search results to get us started as we dig into this topic.

Search Results

• What is main character syndrome?

According to Kate Rosenblatt—a therapist and senior clinical manager at Talkspace—main character syndrome refers to identifying as the protagonist in your own life story. However, the main character syndrome is not an actual mental-health diagnosis as it only exists in pop culture with the influence of movies.

• Is main character syndrome just narcissism?

The condition has been blamed on the rise of social media and its focus on narcissism and self-promotional behavior when a person sees themselves as the leading character and everyone else around them as simply extras.

• What is narcissism?

  • PSYCHOLOGY

    • Selfishness involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need for admiration, as characterizing a personality type.

  • PSYCHOANALYSIS

    • Self-centeredness arising from failure to distinguish the self from external objects, either in very young babies or as a feature of mental disorder.

When I first heard the idea, I found myself intrigued. The term itself resonated with me as I considered if I was guilty of this. As I thought about it, I realized that seeing ourselves as the "Main character" is part of the human condition. This is an increasingly prevalent issue in the millennial and zoomer generation. I am not claiming it is exclusively ours, but this "Me, me, me" focus has become increasingly popular. This idea of doing things for the "self" has become culturally normative. We should ask, "what changed" that created such a self-centered, self-focused generation? Again this is part of the human condition, and so it is not truly new, but only in the last decade have we been able to find mass affirmation for our selfishness. Every generation that has ever existed has its own challenges; we never really face any new problems in this world. We only face old problems repackaged and given to us in a new way. 

"There is nothing new under the sun."

To continue to unpack this idea, I would like to provide a brief history lesson on the technology we now so heavily depend on and which influences us in far more varied ways than most of us might think. 

• The Internet

The official birthday of the internet is January 1, 1983. The internet isn't even 40 years old as this writing, yet it has transformed our world in ways that can hardly even be fathomed. Today you and I can communicate with someone on the other side of the planet. The world became a much smaller place with the birth of the internet. Yet we have embraced this new technology wholesale. Many of us can’t imagine a world without it. As our technological world continues to evolve, we become increasingly dependent on it. If you want to understand better many of the effects we are already seeing in this rising technological age, I would recommend you check out a book called "iGen" by Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. The book does an excellent job of presenting the effects of this new internet-fueled society, how it is affecting us, and the impact it is having on us and the upcoming generation of young people who have never known a world without the internet and likely never will. 

• Social Media

Social media is a very young social experiment, the first social platforms being dated to 1997. One of the first social media platforms was called "bolt" it didn't last long before it was discontinued. Social media has created a world of opportunities to connect with our friends from across the globe. But today, that is not the primary use of many of these platforms, even if that was the original intention. Today the primary use of these platforms is for the "affirmation of the self." I write this from a place of self-reflection; I have felt the physiological tug and have found myself craving that attention. The truth is that these media companies spend millions, if not billions, of dollars on studying human psychology and understanding what makes us "tick." We are all told we are unique snowflakes, which is true at some level. We are each unique and different, made in the image of God, but at a carnal human desire level, we are all fundamentally the same, and that sameness is what these companies study and then use to control and influence us. We are all animalistic at our base level, and those base instincts are predictable. In Biblical terms, this is called the "desires of the flesh," or we call it “Human nature.” These desires are natural for all people. If we do not conform to something greater, something bigger than ourselves, then the natural result is to focus on the “self.”We see this in children; commonly, the first word a child will learn is “mine” because we instinctively think of ourselves first. Fortunately, the Bible has a solution for us to curb our human nature.

Romans 12:2

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

We are warned throughout scripture of the danger of human desires when unhindered. But the message of today's world is to "follow your heart." Few messages are more dangerous than this, yet this is the message this is all too common in our entertainment as adults, but also that of children. 

Social media has the ability to paint things as though you are at the center of the universe. Because everything is about you, it is crafted for you. The scary thing we see today is that we now have machine learning and algorithms designed to give YOU more of what YOU want. A clear example of this is TikTok, an application that has a "for you” page that caters to your desires and wants. Again it's all about YOU, and the problem is that the machine does not know if what you desire is healthy or not; it will simply indulge you in your cravings. These machines are designed to keep your attention, to keep you swiping and viewing endlessly.

33% of TikTok users say they regularly get their news from the app, according to Pew Research. According to the Wall Street Journal, users currently spend 17.6 million hours per day on Instagram Reels, versus 197.8 million hours per day on TikTok.

Just for a little more perspective, that equals roughly 22,373 years worth of videos being consumed PER DAY just on TikTok. I didn’t even include the time spent on Instagram reels. Now here's the terrifying thing there are already observed effects on children who use TikTok. Some children are reported to have developed "Tiks," as seen in those with Tourette's syndrome. The only explanation is that these children and adolescents are viewing content made by users who do have Tourette's syndrome or at least mimic it well enough to be believable. These children then begin to mimic what they see. Through this process, children are LITERALLY making themselves mentally ill because they crave attention and affirmation. We all do because our base instinct is to focus on “self” and what gets “me” attention. These are the effects we see after only a short exposure period. What will the consequences be a generation later? What will the results be of a generation raised to seek constant validation from their social media account? What will the outcome be for a generation of adults who find their meaning in how many likes they get or find their value in the number of followers they have? What will the final result be for a generation who are taught to essentially worship themselves? What happens when they worship their follower count or the likes they get? How much will be stripped away for one more like? 

The scary thing is when we make ourselves the center of the universe, everything eventually begins to crumble. We are not a creature whose shoulders can carry the weight of worship. We can not handle it when others choose to worship us, as seen by many celebrities, as they are often ruined by it, and we destroy ourselves when we begin to worship ourselves. Idolatry is very real today, and our technology helps promote it of others and of ourselves.

My hope in writing this is to observe the effects I have seen in myself. As well as create awareness of how we are each influenced by the media we are surrounded by. Each of us can only address what we know, so in that our ally is the one who tells us things we do not know and do not see. I was recently inspired after reading a book to text a friend. In my text to this friend, I asked him, "what flaw he saw in me? What blind spots did he see in me?" I admit I felt bold and inspired at that moment and asked for perfect candor from my friend. I am also grateful for my friends’ wisdom because he chose to withhold texting me and waited until he and I could sit down and talk face-to-face. And so, one evening, as I was about to leave, he asked me if I still wanted to hear his thoughts. I affirmed I did.

He then took the time to point out some of the flaws he saw in me. He observed that I am someone who struggles to empathize with others. This was an observation with which I had to agree. He chose to approach this in a manner that was not accusatory but instead, he, at that moment, was allowing me to see in myself a blind spot. I had essentially asked him to hold up a mirror and show me what I could not see on my own, and he had done just that. He was showing me what lay behind me that I could not or had chosen not to see in myself.

"To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." -Nicolaus Copernicus

Why do I share this? Because my friend had observed something, I could not fully see by myself. My lack of empathy for others came from a place of selfishness of self-focus. So through that, I was inspired to consider this issue deeper within myself, and as a result, I wrote out my thoughts and hopefully allowed others a chance to take account of their own blind spots.  

In closing, I want to point back to Jesus. When God Himself came to earth, He empathized with those who surrounded Him. The God of all Creation had every right to make it all about Himself. He is the center of the universe; instead, He came to earth for our sakes. He did not come to earth, so we would worship Him, He came so that we could worship Him. This is an important distinction; God does not need our worship. I’ve said it already but I think it’s worth repeating; we NEED something bigger than ourselves to focus on.

My challenge to you, be brave be bold, ask a trusted friend to point out your blind spots, or maybe spend some time meditating on how the things you feed yourself influence you to focus on YOU. Perhaps like me, you wrestle to be empathetic with those who don’t see things as you do, who don't meet the standards you have set for yourself. Whatever it looks like, I hope this writing can both challenge and encourage you. One final quote for you all in the spirit of this thanksgiving weekend in which I was able to write this. May God bless you each! Thank you for reading!

I think that there is a better thing than thanksgiving: thanks-living. How is this to be done? By a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord, and by a submission of our desires to His will. -Charles Spurgeon