Too much “Me” in our generation
Currently I am involved in a project to do with with the development of a memoir. In the work I am led to research on memoir as an art form and as a literary architecture.
Of course the genre is the art of “talking about myself.” In my research among reviewers I stumbled across some helpful criticism regarding the current phenomenon of self-absorption as a current trend in society.
Here is a piece in the NYTimes that shows how far we’ve come in the social dysfunction that fails to know the the disorder of self obsessed writing. 
The Times writer sticks to the bane on literature, but it is a helpful jumping off point to ponder how much else, from the academy to politics, sport, economy and more are become socially harmful as a result of this trend:
A moment of silence, please, for the lost art of shutting up.
There was a time when you had to earn the right to draft a memoir, by accomplishing something noteworthy or having an extremely unusual experience or being such a brilliant writer that you could turn relatively ordinary occurrences into a snapshot of a broader historical moment. Anyone who didn’t fit one of those categories was obliged to keep quiet. Unremarkable lives went unremarked upon, the way God intended.
