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Social media and its effects on self - esteem
The Impact of Facebook
The impact social media has on young people psychologically
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The Impact of Social Media on the Self-Esteem and Well-Being of Emerging Adults According to a Dian de Vries and Rinaldo Kühne (2015), Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site worldwide with over one and a half billion active users every month. Sites like Facebook are most popular among emerging adults, making them the most vulnerable group to the negative effects social media can have on well being for a number of reasons. Individuals in this age range are starting to form and solidify self-perceptions which are directly linked to one’s well-being. Negative self-perceptions are associated with symptoms of depression and positive self-perceptions are associated with a healthier, more positive well-being. (de Vries & Kühne, …show more content…
Vogel et. Al (2014) emphasize in their work that self esteem is a trait that is constantly developing and changing over time. Since it is easily affected and reshaped by individual reactions to daily experiences, they suggest frequent upward social comparison could have a detrimental impact on one’s self esteem. This is significant because self esteem serves various functions related to formation of identity like sense of self worth and acceptance. This suggestion supports the claims made by Dian de Vries, et al. (2015) in that emerging adults are the group most vulnerable to upward social comparison through social media. If upward social comparison can be harmful to self esteem, it is then, by causation, harmful to the development of identity and sense of self, which is already crucial at the age of emerging …show more content…
al (2013) is the examination of rumination, an unfavorable emotion regulation strategy, as the link between social comparison and depressive symptoms or lower self-esteem. Their research revealed a strong positive association between social media use, rumination, and depressive symptoms. Rumination is problematic for one’s self-esteem and well-being because it refers to repeatedly dwelling on one’s distress. The work of Feinstein, et. al (2013) shows results indicating that rumination is likely “a mechanism through which negative social comparison increases depressive symptoms” (p.
The attraction of users to Facebook, or social media in general, isn’t that difficult to comprehend. Over the course of the past 60 years, the percentage of people live alone has increased by 17 percent. In the 50’s it was 10 percent, in 2010, it was estimated at 27 percent. The promise of a greater connection seems extremely attractive to those living in solitary. Here is the irony, what Facebook and Social media provides, differs a great deal from what is needed to create and sustain deeper emotional AND Lasting
One’s amount of Facebook reflects how popular one wish to appear online more than how healthy one’s friendship truly is. Constant usage of Facebook allows user to potentially feel like they have a meaningful social life, when in reality, they are missing something. In Stephen Marche’s 2102 article, “Is Facebook making Us Lonely?” he notes that Facebook was introduced to the world in the midst of spreading and intensifying loneliness, an idea to which he greatly attributes Facebook’s appeal and success (Marche 26). Initially, social networking sites seem to be evidence of modern-day social interaction being easier and more convenient than ever.
Social media has become one of the most popular sources of communication for the upcoming generation. For young people growing up in today’s society, social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have provided pictures and news that have become the first thing that their eyes see in the morning and the last thing that they see before bed. These pictures have provided unrealistic standards as to what is considered beautiful in today’s society. As young people refer to these images as a form of comparison, it has created harmful circumstances. These influences on the lives of young people have forced them to take extreme measures and in some cases, has been the cause of death. Social media in today’s society has proven to have a negative impact on the way young people, specifically females, view their bodies. Unrealistic beauty standards, dangerous comparisons and disorders have all been a result to the increase in social media and the impact that it has on the lives of young people.
The question of whether self- esteem has significance with real world- consequences is a valid concern. Ulrich Orth and Richard W. Robins provide the answer, with evidence contributed by researched studies, in their article The Development of Self- Esteem that self- esteem, in fact, does influence societal significance. With the determination on self- esteem trajectory from adolescence to old age, self- esteem stability, and the relationship between levels of self-esteem and predictions of success and failure, one can conclude that self- esteem influences life outcomes; moreover, people can participate to involvements focused at positively influencing the development of self- esteem.
The social comparison theory has been studied for years and defined as the philosophy that people need to turn to others for assurance of their own opinions and actions. In other words, people base their personal worth on how they compare to peers around them. This theory can support why it is human nature to be envious of others based on what they have. Individuals need to evaluate themselves in almost every aspect of life, including wealth, relationship status, and intelligence. These are some areas where most people their evaluations to determine how successful their life is at the current moment. In “A Theory of Social Processes” by Leon Festinger, he collects data based on this theory and presents certain hypotheses that can be supported through different experiments. Not only has it been shown in experiments, but also in everyday life. In a televised series, “That’s 70s Show” the main character, Eric Forman, has gone through a situation where he displayed the social comparison theory. Lastly, in personal experiences I have a friend that has encountered a cheating problem in his relationship that caused him to rethink about what he will do based on the consensus of his peers.
The University of Salford in the UK did a study last year on social media’s effects on self-esteem and anxiety, and reported that 50% of their 298 participants said that their “use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter makes their lives worse”. (Medical Daily) The study also reported that participants said ...
As defined by Baron and Branscombe (2011), self-esteem refers to an individuals overall attitude toward themselves, or sense of self worth. A major influencer of self-esteem is social connectedness, or an individual’s sense of belongingness to his or her social environments and networks (Lee & Robbins, 1998). For example, being excluded or ignored by ones peers is said to be psychologically painful, therefore causing reduction in self-esteem (Baron & Branscombe, 2011). Thus, social connectedness and self-esteem can be considered to be positively associated. With this in mind, there has been on going debate since the end of the 20th century on the role that the Internet is playing in effecting the quality of social relationships among individuals, and, in turn, influencing their levels of self-esteem and psychological well-being. This has come to be known as the Internet Paradox, and the issue continues to be relatively conflicting, with opponents of the Internet criticizing that its use contributes to a decrease in social connectivity (Nie, Hillygus, & Erbring, 2002), loneliness (Moody, 2001), and depression (Morgan & Cotton, 2003), known as the social reduction hypothesis, and proponents finding results that support the idea that Internet use and social network interaction facilitates psychological well being by enhancing social connectedness (Grieve, Indian, Witteveen, Tolan, & Marrington, 2013) and the positive outcomes associated with it, referred to as social capital.
How the social networking influents young people’s psychological well-being? Since the World Wide Web appeared in the world in the year of 1991, the internet has significantly changed people’s life on almost every level. Especially when the social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, became popular during the last decade, people’s lifestyles have greatly changed by this form of communication, which consequently brings many psychological effects on the young people. As the result, according to the recent researches, the teenagers and the young adults in this era are bearing many mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction, due to the social
One could argue that the effects of social networking sites could make an individual more inwards due to the lack of direct social contact. As the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine suggests (in Sigman, 2009) “Social networking encourages us to ignore the social networks that form in our non-virtual communities”. However as Lewis & West (2009) found, Facebook seems to have the opposite effect and encourages an individual to be more social in some ways due to the structure of the site as it is less direct than a phone call and with no monetary costs attached to it, but always with the ability to communicate with multiple people at one time with other individuals about to respond to a message and view others responses. If a person does become inward and slightly withdrawn from society through Facebook, then most likely they may have possessed these traits already as Dwyer’s research of behaviour offline suggests that even “some people will always be more inclined to socialise than others” (2000). This maybe due to their own personality traits rather than the effects of Facebook on an individual. As Amichai-Hamburger & Vinitzky discovered in their 2010 study, introverted individuals seem to transfer their pattern of behaviour from offline to online, which is reflected in the smaller volume of ‘Facebook Friends’ in comparison with those with extroverted personalities. As was stated earlier by Ross (2009), Facebook’s structure is mainly offline to online therefore those who are introverted in reality and have trouble forming friendships offline, will have fewer friends who can be added as ‘Facebook friends’ so their lack of social circle size is not a result of Facebook, it merely highlights it.
Social media is so popular that according to a recent article published by forbes.com, “72% of American adults are currently using social media sites; that figure has gone up 800% in just 8 years”(Olenski). Social networking was originally created to simply reconnect people with old high school pals, but in recent years it has evolved into a completely different operation. When social media first originated it was also intended for adult usage, which has in recent years expanded into the usage of all ages. Social media can create a negative affect on lives because it has been proven to be a dangerous addiction, for it takes away interpersonal relationships that are essential in life, and it has been proven to prevent people from being productive in life.
These things have become so common that not having them almost makes it seem like there is something missing. Because of features such as these, it is incredibly easy to share every aspect of what we are reading, doing, eating and listening to with everyone in our social networks. While this has meant incredible advances in the way we interact with our world, it has also fundamentally changed the way our social relationships are created and sustained. Social medial led users to have false impression of others and changed our feelings. Because social media users tend to only show the most positive aspects of their lives, social media users have a false sense of reality when it comes to how they seem themselves, how others see them and how they see other people. “It is not difficult to say that social media effect our perception of others” (Goshgarian213).
One of the most concerning effects of social media is depression. When teens create an online identity, they are often displaying an unauthentic self. This “other” self is often what the person wants to be like. Having to jump from the online self to the real self can often lead to depression. In an article in the Huffington Post, Dr. Jim Taylor calls this Facebook depression. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that “Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” defined as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.” (802). Facebook and other social media outlets create an almost high school-like environment outside of school where the teen has to strive for acceptance as well. Dr. Moreno tells the New York Times that ...
Social networking can connect strangers across the world. As the evolution of communication continues, technology progresses and social networking grows. Social networks like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have grown to have billions of users. In fact in today’s society, it is necessary or nearly expected to use one if not all of these technological communication networks. The increasing use of social networking has had both a negative and positive effect on communication in relationships. The purpose of this literary analysis is to answer if social networks are helpful or harmful to relationships.
There are many problems related to the internet but I will focus on one that is very important which is relationships on social media. Social media might cause many people to feel lonely and make that the people break up or cause damages in any relationships because those people are not able to socialize or interact with people around them. Social media is harmful tool the we have to use with caution because sometimes it helps you, but sometimes it goes against you, especially Facebook and Twitter. Information sharing and relationships on social media are problems that need to be addressed for many reasons. Some of these reasons are the people who are active on social media, interact and socialize with
Marche, Stephen. “Is Facebook Making us Lonely? (Cover story)”: 8 (10727825) 309.4 (2012): 68. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.