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NEWS AND COMMENTARY
| WORLD NEWS | COUNTRY NEWS |
COMMENTARY | MEDIA RELEASES |
Web social networks making students more narcissistic, study indicates
By Sharon Jayson, USA Today
College students say social networking makes them more narcissistic, a national survey reports today—and they also believe their generation is the most narcissistic of all. That's what a majority of 1,068 college students said when asked about narcissism in a poll on social networking sites in June by Ypulse.
More than half (57%) said their peers used social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter for self-promotion, narcissism and attention-seeking. And 92% said they used MySpace or Facebook regularly. Two-thirds said their generation was more self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident and attention-seeking than others.
The survey was done with Jean Twenge, associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic.
Other researchers, however, say self-promotion doesn't have to be a negative.
"We all kind of put on our best face when presenting ourselves in social situations, online or offline," says Nicole Ellison, an assistant professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing who studies social networking.
Companion Features:
Take the Narcissistic Personality Inventory test
Interview with Dr. Drew Pinsky on narcissism in children
Best-selling Bible to undergo revision
By Eric Gorski, Associated Press
The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.
"We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand," said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.
But past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been plagued by controversies about gender language that have pitted theological conservatives against each other.
The changes did not make all men "people" or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn't intend it. So in some verses, references to "sons of God" became "children of God," for example.COMMENTARY
King James to roll over again
A front-page article (the lead!) in yesterday’s daily doormat dealt with the New International Version of the Bible, about to undergo revision. This will involve a further dumbing-down, undoubtedly—although the revisory spokesmen didn’t come right out and say so—for the increasingly illiterate or aliterate populace.
The King James Bible is one of the glories of our language, but it’s tough sledding, I imagine, for the average dunderhead that Christ-inanity hopes to keep or bring into the fold. “(The New International Version) has sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, mainly to evangelicals,” the story reports, which is no surprise, for if there’s one thing the evangelical wants it’s his Bible plain and simple, and the NIV specializes in spoon-feeding it to him.
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed was in itself, after his kind…” That is the King James Version translation of an episode of Creation. And here is the NIV’s: “Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’” Nothing fancy-schmancy about that.
