Social Media

&
Self-Esteem
Stephanie Janzen
Social Media
Internet use related to psycho-social health, but is it
positive or negative?
Active number of Facebook users 900 million
Users who log on in any given day 50%
Average number of friends 130
Uploaded content each month 30 billion
Self-Evaluations
Objective Self Awareness Model

Assumes that humans are both object and
subject. People become the object of their
own self-consciousness when they focus
attention on the self.

Motivates people to assess how well they are
Living up to norms.

OSA

Activates discrepancies between oneself and social standards


Lowers self-esteem

Hyperpersonal Model
Developed by Communication professor Joseph Walther in 1995.

An interpersonal communication theory that suggests computer mediated
communication (CMC) can become hyperpersonal because it exceeds face-
to-face interaction.

Allows selective self-presentation (all positive). Can become excessively
personal.

Affects attitude counters OSA model


Selective self-presentation makes Facebook a unique
self-enhancing stimuli.
Are other people happier?
In the online environment, people try to manage their impressions in a
favourable way.

Computer mediated communication eliminates many of the subtle cues
people use to form impressions of others.

Availability Heuristic
- Individuals base judgments on examples that they can easily recall.


Gives impression that others are happy and have good lives.
Are other people happier?
People tend to underestimate the negative experiences of
others and overestimate the positive experiences.

Presence of friends with similar
backgrounds likely to magnify effects.

Suitable reference group for self-
evaluation.
Correspondence Bias
Correspondence Bias the tendency to
assume that others actions and words
reflect their personality or stable personal
disposition rather than being affect by
situational factors.

Assumes happiness is a stable
characteristic

Fail to take into consideration the external
factors

Less cognitive effort to make internal
attributions than external ones.


Bias
Intimacy
Length
Time
Envy & its Cognitive Consequences
2 Types of Envy
-Benign: frustrates but motivates
-Malicious: wants the other to fail

Experiencing envy increases our attention to and memory for relevant social
targets.

Both men and women became increasingly envious of
people as they became wealthier

Only women were increasingly envious of targets as they became more
physically attractive

Individuals whose memories were triggered by the high-envy targets were
subsequently less able or willing to devote scarce cognitive resources to solving a
series of difficult word puzzles.
Solutions
Problems of relying on
availability heuristic and having
correspondence bias can be
alleviated by having more
balanced information

The more time people spend
going out with friends, the less
they agreed that the other had
better lives and are happier.
Pinterest Stress
In a survey conducted by Today
42per cent said that surfing the photo-
sharing site made them feel depressed.

And three in four said that the
pressure they felt from browsing
Pinterest was worse than any
judgment they might experience from
other moms.

Solution? Get offline
http://www.today.com/moms/pinterest-stress-afflicts-nearly-half-moms-survey-says-
1C9850275