Written by Colby M. (KIS '24)
━━ December 21st, 2020 ━━
Throughout my school life, social media has played an important role in many aspects. However, I noticed that not everyone was as opened minded to social media as I was. Many people didn’t seem to weigh that much interest on the impacts of social media whereas others believed it to be very harmful; some believe it to lower their self-esteem. This got me wondering whether or not social media was really a positive platform.
It is no surprise that social media is a widely used platform in our world today, particularly used by students; according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Association, ninety percent of teens ages 13-17 have used social media. Yet, despite the popularity of the platform, there are numerous cases in which students confine themselves from getting anywhere near social media.
Although in most cases, students restrict themselves from using social media due to its severe addictivity, some students find themselves avoiding the platform due to the fear of it negatively affecting their self-esteem.
After spending some time on my research, to my surprise, I had found two recent studies about the impact of social media in relation to social comparison; social media causes problems with self-evaluation and self-esteem.
The first study that I found was based on a widely used platform called Facebook. The study found that people who used Facebook most frequently had lower trait self-esteem than those who used Facebook less or not at all. This means that people who used Facebook, which is a form of social media, had experienced problems with their self-esteem.
Though there might be various reasons why this might have happened, I believe that this negative effect on multiple Facebook user’s self-esteem seems to be the result of downward social comparison. What this means is that Facebook users experience a mostly negative impact on the platform due to them comparing themselves to other Facebook users that post pictures of themselves.
Although this itself isn’t a problem, people who often post pictures of themselves might seem “better” than other users in terms of their social media presence; they might be showing off their physical appearance or their high-class day to day life. This has a stronger impact on them than the potential benefits arising from the platform.
The second study that I found examined the impact of one’s exposure to social networking platforms on their self-esteem. The results showed that participants often experienced lower state self-esteem and poorer self-evaluations after being exposed to a person with a high activity social network.
Not to mention that participants who often found themselves scrolling through social media also had poorer self-evaluations after exposure to an upward healthy comparison target. Nonetheless, viewing social media profiles with positive content resulted in poorer state self-esteem and more negative self-evaluations.
In conclusion, When in control, social media can be a wonderful tool with lots of benefits. However, there is a high risk of a potential downside to frequent and addictive social media use. As many people, especially teens, use social media sites in their everyday life, they risk overexposure to all the negativities listed above.
As I mentioned before, it is mostly students and teens who access social media and I believe that teens aren’t very efficient on self-control and confinement. This is why I believe that students should not use social media unless they can always have a way to restrict themselves from it. They shouldn’t be “controlled” by social media. I would advise that if a student/teen chooses to use social media, they should contact a trusted adult to help them control themselves to prevent them from potential harm.
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Credits:
Vogel, E.A., Rose, J.P., Roberts, L.R., & Eckles, K. (2014). Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 3, 206-222.
Ivcevic, Z., & Ambady, N. (2012). Personality impressions from identity claims on Facebook. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1, 38–45.
Haferkamp, N., & Kramer, N. C. (2011). Social comparison 2.0: Examining the effects of online pro-files on social networking sites. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14, 309–314.
Rosenberg, J., & Egbert, N. (2011). Online impression management: Personality traits and concerns for secondary goals as predictors of self-presentation tactics on Facebook. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17, 1–18.
Chou, H.-T. G., & Edge, N. (2012). “They are happier and having better lives than I am”: The impact of using Facebook on perceptions of others’ lives. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15, 117–121
Coopersmith, S. (1967). The antecedents of self- esteem. San Francisco, CA: Freeman.
Vitak, J., & Ellison, N. (2013). “There’s a network out there you might as well tap”: Exploring the benefits of and barriers to exchanging informational and support-based resources on Facebook. New Media and Society, 15, 243–259.
Feinstein, B. A., Hershenberg, R., Bhatia, V., Latack, J. A., Meuwly, N., & Davila, J. (2013). Negative social comparison on Facebook and depressive symptoms: Rumination as a mechanism. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2, 161–170.
Forest, A. L., & Wood, J. V. (2012). When social networking is not working: Individuals with low self-esteem recognize but do not reap the benefits of self-disclosure on Facebook. Psychological Science, 23, 295–302.
Facebook. (2012). Statistics. Facebook.com. Retrieved from http://newsroom.fb.com/content/ default.aspx?NewsAreald
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