Are Bloggers Just Online Narcissists?

Narcissists. According to Psychology Today, they're "charming, exasperating, captivating—and sometimes downright ludicrous."

According to Ben Affleck, Narcissism is "the one quality that unites everybody in the film industry."

But has the self-obsessed, ego-centric ridiculousness usually reserved for performers, athletes and politicians now taken over the Web? These days, it  seems it doesn't take much more than tens of thousands of followers on YouTube to be called a "star."

Narcissists can even be found around the mom blogosphere (gasp!). I know, shocking. When I was in the TV world, incessantly talking about your kids was career suicide. Yet, women like Heather Armstrong (AKA Dooce) is said to see over five million hits a month, bringing in (an unconfirmed) cool two mil a year. She's blunt and funny and has no filter, sure. But two million bucks a year writing crap about her family and posting video of her kid saying "grandma"? It's no wonder there are so many others trying to push their way to the top.

And it's not just online. The cliques and clubs move to live events, in the form of blog conferences, screenings and other offline affairs -- often turning social networks like Twitter and Facebook more high school than usual.