Social Media and Self-Esteem

Have you ever felt the joy of opening your Facebook page and seeing a lot of notifications? Have you ever checked your phone and smiled because you had a list of users who liked your Instagram picture? Have you ever posted something funny on Twitter, but no one favorited or retweeted it? Have you ever messaged someone but never got a response? Most people, including myself, would answer these questions with a yes. Why does social media hold a major role in how we feel about ourselves?

While thinking about how to answer that question, it all began to make sense. People don't post status updates or pictures to not get a response. We post these things with the hope that someone will 'like' it and respond. When I post a picture on Facebook or Instagram, I expect that my friends will give me feedback on it. If I check my recently added photo and it has not yet received more than 10 likes, I feel my self-esteem drop a little bit.

I decided to do a little research on the relationship between social media and self-esteem. Like most things, there are two sides to this story: the positive and the negative.

The first article emphasized the negative, stating that social media gives a false sense of reality and causes the user to become envious of others and measure their success by the success of others. Social media allows everyone to brag about their life and demonstrate how well they are doing. The article also says that people who use social media a lot crave attention and drama. Wait until election time and log onto Facebook, that is the best time to scroll down endless comments of arguing political views. The amount of drama that comes from a single status is astounding.

The other article I found focused on the positive images of using social media. This article describes a study done on college students at Cornell University. They placed some students at computers and allowed them to change their Facebook profiles while the others sat at computers that were turned off and had a mirror propped next to the screen. After a few minutes, the students took a questionnaire to measure their self-esteem. The students that were allowed to edit their Facebook profiles showed higher self-esteem levels than the other students.

Social media gives users a chance to show off their achievements and put their best foot forward. Watching people 'like' or 'favorite' your posts gives you a sense of belonging and happiness, but if your posts are not well received, your self-esteem can drop. Although updating your profile picture or your twitter feed makes you happy and raises your self-esteem, it is a good idea to leave your phone or computer somewhere and enjoy real face to face contact.