Presenting a special guest post by Anja Rubik of the latest issue of 25 Magazine with 3 exclusive teaser videos by Paola Kudacki (scroll down for the second and third teaser videos)

I invite you to come inside a world of self love in iSSUE 03 of 25. Our incredible contributors have interpreted our theme of NARCISSISM in provoking, beautiful ways. With our launch approaching, I present to you an exclusive look at our teasers as well as my Editor’s note. I hope you enjoy Issue 03; in my opinion…it’s our best one yet.

EDITO
Most of the time, I m obliged to roll my eyes at the Internet. Remember Chatroulette? That little phenomenon was the Internet in its purest form for me. Under the guise of connecting like-minded individuals, it proved that cheap porn is all it’s good for. Now, with Facebook, Instagram, and The Vine, people don’t even need to associate with others. They just document themselves and wait for the comments to roll in. Recently, as a kind of social experiment, my husband Sasha started an Instagram under the alter-ego Dzoni the Narcissist. It pokes fun at how people, above all else, use social media as a tool for self-promotion and vanity. I was struck with how Sasha commented on the selfie phenomenon by incorporating the same platform that others use to document it. We both thought this idea of documenting and commenting on narcissism was very contemporary, and came to the conclusion that we live in the era of “ME.”
The stereotypical narcissist craves self-worship over everything. You’ve seen them, the girl or guy in the park who exercises for thirteen hours a day so they can go home and jerk off in front of a mirror. With social media playing such a big part in our modern times, it has only advanced how narcissism creeps into our daily lives. With the use of the Internet, countless people get off on writing their entire biography in tiny Twitter entries, and photo-documenting everything from their breakfasts to boob jobs. Narcissism has somehow become a paradox: widely accepted, yet increasingly controversial.

On the one hand, it’s a bit embarrassing to be so vain, to feel a shred of pride when you rack up Facebook “likes.” There’s that awkward moment of catching yourself holding up a line because you’ve become so immersed in your own Instagram posts. When we don’t care about anything but ourselves, our narcissism turns into a form of self-worship. This form of vanity has turned into promoting a very shallow outer layer of ourselves, which is actually the layer that was considered forbidden in the first place. The double-edged sword is that, despite the immodesty of narcissism, we may need it to succeed. In order to be accomplished in a creative field, you need to believe in yourself to the point of obsession. Without that kind of forbidden self-worship that seems so shameful at first, we wouldn’t have awesome artists. Salvador Dalí, for example, was a huge narcissist, both loved and hated for his outrageous self-promotion and push for fame. If the kind of technology that exists today were around during Dalí’s time, you can bet he’d be on Vine.

Even if narcissism isn’t used for promotion, it could have therapeutic benefit. The positive reinforcement we get from watching our fame grow provides a boost in self-confidence. Since we’ve been taught to beat ourselves up for centuries, the advent of social media narcissism may be the best thing that has happened to mankind. We are self-centered, self-focused, more confident, and through that less violent. We get compliments and send compliments, conversing with perfect strangers, embracing narcissism as the peaceful way of the future. Promoting yourself without boundaries is more honest than fake modesty.

In many ways, this journal is an exercise in positive narcissism. I’ve asked some talented contributors to interpret the multifaceted subject, from the destructive, to the controversial, to the beautiful. To balance out all the vanity in this issue, we’ve also added a section of great musicians who are about to make it big. Take note and follow their Twitter and Instagrams. I’d say the same for Sasha’s alter ego… but that’s getting dangerous.