--- title: Five Best: How Americans Became Obsessed With Self-Esteem description: How Americans became obsessed with self-esteem, is being a good samaritan becoming too dangerous and more. canonical: https://time.com/4799409/how-americans-became-obsessed-with-self-esteem/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-31T16:00:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:47.692Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Americans Became Obsessed With Self-Esteem og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4799409/how-americans-became-obsessed-with-self-esteem/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Americans Became Obsessed With Self-Esteem twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How Americans Became Obsessed With Self-Esteem by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 31, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute May 31, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**This is how Americans became obsessed with self-esteem.**](http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/05/self-esteem-grit-do-they-really-help.html) By Jesse Singal in the _Science of Us_ **2\.** [**Is being a good samaritan becoming too dangerous?**](http://www.slate.com/articles/news%5Fand%5Fpolitics/politics/2017/05/the%5Fprofound%5Fand%5Fdamaging%5Flesson%5Fof%5Fthe%5Fportland%5Fattack.html) By Lowen Liu in _Slate_ **3\.** [**Technology is aggravating global inequality. Luckily, technology can fix it.**](https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/31/technology-is-making-the-world-more-unequal-only-technology-can-fix-this-cory-doctorow) By Cory Doctorow in the _Guardian_ **4\.** [**Meet a surprising new ally in the quest for medical marijuana: the American Legion.**](http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2017/05/what-wounded-veterans-need-medical-marijuana/138204/?oref=d-channelriver) By Joe Plenzler and Lou Celli in _Defense One_ **5\.** [**The problem with millennials isn’t millennials — it’s how we lead them.**](http://mashable.com/2017/05/30/problem-with-millennials-isnt-millennials-leadership/?utm%5Fcid=mash-com-Tw-main-link#5XP1G1MPiaq8) By Aaron Orendorff in _Mashable_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4799409/how-americans-became-obsessed-with-self-esteem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4799409/how-americans-became-obsessed-with-self-esteem/"},"headline":"How Americans Became Obsessed With Self-Esteem","datePublished":"2017-05-31T16:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:47.692Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4799409/how-americans-became-obsessed-with-self-esteem/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","Internet","ISIS","Election","Library"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4799409/how-americans-became-obsessed-with-self-esteem/","name":"How Americans Became Obsessed With Self-Esteem"}}]}] ```