Body positive pictures, endless selfies, and constant self boosting all characterize confidence or narcissism?  Narcissism is defined as the excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one’s physical appearance. The debacle that runs through our teenage heads whenever we see someone posting numerous selfies, posting body positive pics, walking with pride, praising themself and so on walks on the thin line between self confidence and narcissism.

“I think someone posting a body picture is just them being happy in their own skin because they’re happy with their body, they are just expressing themselves” says Patrick Garnaat (9). Regardless of the topic of slut-shaming on social media, when we see someone who is frequently posting pictures of themselves on social media, we associate that with them being obsessed with themself. “You never know how hard it was for the person to put themselves out there and how much confidence they had to post it,” says Zainab Fayyaz (9).

There is a difference in finding confidence in your physical image versus relying on your image as the only source of attention and appraisal. “Narcissism, in my point of view, is when a person loves themselves DUE to their physical image. Often narcissistic people seem to believe others are envious of them,” states Sydney Adams (12).

Compared to narcissism, self confidence thrives off of your own personal happiness, self worth and success. “Self confidence really comes from within, if you are confident in yourself you learn to address your imperfections and change or accept them. With narcissism, you aren’t really confident in yourself, you fully depend on showing off to other people so they can praise you, making you feel better about yourself” says Fayyaz (9).

So whenever you see someone posting a picture on social media with their body or even a selfie, keep in mind that everybody has a different level of self confidence as well as a way of showing it. You may receive no confidence from posting a picture but someone else may. You may think it’s dumb to wear clothing that is too dressy or eye popping to school but that person may gain confidence by feeling good. All in all, there is a fine line between self confidence and narcissism, for this reason keep in mind what both words mean before trying to hinder someone’s confidence due to your lack of judgement.

Alternative Coverage: Examples of Narcissism VS Self Confidence in the style of Tweets

Self Confident- @jarjarbanks_ been struggling for this for awhile but I now have enough money saved from working to go to New Hampshire

Narcissism: @jabadahut @jarjarbanks_ I went to Italy too and Germany and Australia, nobody cares about New Hampshire

Self-Confident- @guccimain summer season means bikini season and uncovering the scars from surgery- my past is my story

Narcissism: @guccimain @tygalover I have the same swimsuit except I’ve been going to the gym for 3 months and eat healthy and bought it before you so…..