SELF CONCEPT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS AND THEIR USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Is There a Relationship between Self-Concept of College Students

and Their Use of Social Media?
Christine Bxxx, Cristina Dxxxxxxxx, Kaitlin Fxxxx, Sarah McCxxxxx
Group D
Marist College
Date

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-2

Abstract
This paper explores ten published articles that analyze college students and their use of social
media. These articles demonstrate how social media has grown and evolved to become pertinent
in the digital communication world. The authors examine positive and negative behaviors of
college students and how they interact with each other. The way in which college students utilize
social media allows them to create portrayals of themselves; this leads to different self-concepts.
Social media sites have served as a platform for adolescents to communicate and ultimately
define themselves and their self-image. There is a correlation between behaviors on social media
and students overall psychological well being. Based on the information that the researchers
present, social media has direct impact on college students and their everyday lives. We will
further analyze college students between the ages of 18 and 22 years old and how social media
affects their self-concept. Participants will take a survey created by our group members that will
explore social media usage. As well as participate in focus groups.
Keywords: Social Media, College Students, Interaction, Self Concept

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-3

In our paper, we will explore the self-concept of college students and how they
communicate through social media. Throughout this paper, we will use social media sites that
have been well researched such as Facebook and Twitter. These sites suggest that college
students may portray themselves differently on social media sites than they do via face-to-face
communication.
With social media being a major part of society, we decided to do this study to determine
how college students communicate with one another and how they will depict themselves on the
Internet. Our focus is on first year students starting college. First year students in a new
environment make them feel vulnerable. This is a transitional time making new friends, and
some students are unable to verbally express themselves. This can be intimidating, therefore,
some students would rather go on to a social media site where they can post about themselves
and also make friends through the Internet. We will further discuss topics such as why college
students use social media and what gratifications or lack thereof they receive from this form of
communication.
The purpose of this phenomenological study will be to understand the relationship
between social media and self-concept of college students. From this standpoint, we determined
that our independent variable would be social media because social media is the variable that is
manipulated to see if self-concept changes. There may be different social networking sites
discussed throughout the paper, however the reason why college students use the sites will
remain the same. We chose the dependent variable as self-concept of college students because it
is what could be changed when social media is manipulated. Every college student will have a

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-4

different answer of how they interact on social media. After developing our research question,
we decided on the sub questions that we will analyze throughout our paper. These sub questions
include: How would college students describe why they use social media? How do college
students express themselves on social media network sites?
Going forward, we may see that some students will be able to communicate better on
social media than they will face to face. We will also see a variety of college students making
friends with the click of a button on a social networking site rather than going out and meeting
new people. We will further discover what rewards these participants receive from using social
media.
Literature Review
In Whiting and Williamss (2013) article on Why people use social media: a uses and
gratifications approach, seven themes were found. This theory tells the researchers why
someone is using social media and what rewards they get out of using it or lack thereof. The
themes found include: Social interaction, information seeking, pass time, entertainment,
relaxation, communicatory utility and convenience utility (Whiting & Williams, 2013). Whiting
and Williams created a study based on the seven themes. To understand why people use social
media, they conducted 25 interviews with people between the ages of 18 and 56 years old. The
social media theme participants resonated most with was social interaction (Whiting & Williams,
2013). Of the 25 participants, the majority would rather interact through social media than face
to face (Whiting & Williams, 2013). This finding shows that some people would rather
communicate in the digital world than in real life. Social media is widely used, however can
some people be over using it?

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-5

When used too frequently, social media can lead to issues with an individuals
psychological well being (Lee & Cheung, 2014). Lee and Cheung studied the correlation
between ones self esteem and social networking site usage. Further, they used cognitivebehavioral theory to determine how social media habits affected users everyday lives. This
theory is used to analyze how participants react to certain experiences. Cognitive-behavioral
theory helps researchers to analyze how certain variables are contributing to participants psyche
negatively or positively (Lee & Cheung, 2014). Lee and Cheung (2014) discovered how social
networking site users withdraw from their lives the more they use these sites. They used the
theory to determine how social media is affecting participants and their self-concepts negatively.
Lee and Cheung (2014) review how some users would prefer social interaction online rather than
face-to-face interaction. They further discover how people with low self-esteem interact in the
digital world rather than in real life. These individuals find social interactions easier online. Lee
and Cheung conducted a Facebook study where they offered individuals a fifteen-dollar voucher
for volunteering to participate. They received 200 completed questionnaires from their target
audience of 16 to 25 year olds. Lee and Cheung (2014) discovered that 16 to 25 year olds who
use social media to interact rather than face-to-face communication have low self-esteem, which
correlates positively with overuse of social networking sites. This finding shows the potential
negative aspects of social networking usage for college students.
In the article Changes in use, Perception and Attitude of First Year Students Towards
Facebook and Twitter, Kevin Johnston, Mei-Miao Chen, and Magnus Hauman discuss first year
students and their attitudes towards social media websites. Before their study, they asked
participants why they use social media (Johnston et al., 2013). They created a survey sample of
486 students globally in different universities to see how Facebook and Twitter are used as a

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-6

social aspect for students (Johnston et al., 2013). While conducting this study, they found that
most of the participants use Facebook and Twitter as their go to social media sites. These
researchers discovered that students who use Facebook are more likely to create an online
identity and reconnect with old friends, and also found out that Twitter is not as popular as
Facebook. Twitter is a networking site where people can express what is going on in their lives
through a 140-character text.
In Steinfields article, Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites:
A longitudinal analysis" (2008), researchers discovered that Facebook and Twitter can affect how
students communicate through social networking sites. The authors describe in full detail the
experimental survey they have done with Facebook users. The article goes in depth about
psychological well being its connection to the use of Facebook and how this affects social capital
outcomes.
Along with self-concept comes self-esteem and body image. There is a direct link
between social media and depression of college students. Sarwat Sultan and Irshad Hussain
(2012) uncover the link between depression of college females and Facebook in their article;
Social networking of depressed and non-depressed female college students. The researchers
discovered that best friends of depressed people are more likely to be depressed than the best
friend of a non-depressed person.
In the article, College students' social networking experiences on Facebook, Pempek,
Yermolayeva, & Calvert, (2009) determine when, where, why, and how much time
undergraduate students spend on social networking websites. The participants studied completed
follow up surveys after reporting their use of Facebook. This is the exact type of information that
will help draw a direct link to how self-concept of college students is affected by social media.

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-7

Understanding the amount of time a student uses Facebook on average, will help to determine
how this use of Facebook is affecting them.
In Gitimu and Sponcils (2013) article Use of social media by college students;
Relationship to communication and self- concept, two theories were used as a base of their
work including; Eriksons theory of human development and Arnetts theory of emerging
childhood (Gitimu & Sponcil, 2013). These theories describe a time period in a childs life when
they begin to communicate with one another (Gitimu & Sponcil, 2013). Gitimu and Sponcil
created a study where they asked 96 students from different college classes how they
communicate with friends face to face (Gitimu & Sponcil, 2013). Gitimu and Sponcil (2013)
concluded that college students had at least one form of social media that they used to
communicate with their friends. Gitimu and Sponcil (2013) identified a .586 Pearson correlation
between usage of social media and communication with family and friends. They also identified
a .658 Pearson correlation between usage of social media and self-concept. Gitimu and Sponcil
(2013) also discovered that social media gives students a chance to gain popularity on the
Internet with friends who are not very social in person but are able to communicate via social
media. Being able to communicate with friends in person can be intimidating for some students
who do not have an outgoing personality. This article shows that social media can have a positive
effect on a college students self concept by providing them communication skills.
The communication aspect and the way that it is utilized by college students on social
networks was divulged into by Valenzuela, Park, and Kee, (2009). They were trying to find the
answer to the question: is there any aspect of social media today that hinders someones desire to
fully showcase their true identity because they worry how their peers will act? Their article found
that social media does not benefit those who are introverted or self-conscious in their life outside

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-8

of the Internet and were not likely to step out of their comfort level on the Internet either. This
adds on another element because communication through social media could possibly affect selfconcept. Valenzuela, Park and Kee discovered that, College students with lower levels of life
satisfaction could seek to participate in online networks to increase their personal wellbeing(p.878). The way in which college students communicate with others online relates to the
way in which they view themselves, in other words, their self-concept. Social media sites and
social media have interlocking aspects that have to do with self-concept due to the way in which
communication with others is utilized.
A research problem addressed within the study by Farquhar (2012) seemed to focus on
the way Facebook and other social media sites eventually affect how students reflect on
themselves. The researchers delved into the issue of how social media has gone so far as to
change students opinion of themselves, or to go even further, has made them desire to change
what is inherently unique about them to portray themselves as to others. Cheung, Chiu, and Lee
(2011) also focused on this concept and found that students are highly influenced by social
networks, similarly to how in society they can feel as if they need to portray themselves in a
certain way. Within their paper they stated, Social identity refers to the self-awareness of ones
membership in a group and the significance of this membership. It can create a sense of
belonging and emotional involvement with the community and an evaluation of self-worth on the
basis of belonging to a particular group (p.1340). This relates back to the research done by
Farquhar (2012) because he found that students essentially were molding themselves to fit
certain social expectations that were being presented online. He found that so much of social
media is made up of information related to identity so it makes sense that how a college student
is portrayed is important to them and may influence how they choose to come across to others

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-9

(Farquhar, 2012). Another interesting side of this study could have been to observe how a person
chooses to upload information or content if they are under the impression that it will not be made
public. Or having them create two separate profiles, one public and one private, and compare
how they portray themselves on each site, showing how they really view themselves versus how
they want people to perceive them.
Cheung, Chiu, and Lee (2011) realized that social media has revolutionized the way that
communication occurs and this has brought upon a mass change to how students view it. Social
presence was a key term due to the desire of college students to blend in with everybody else and
seem similar to other people in the same social group as them. This is a detrimental part of the
studies because it proves that self-concept can be fluid and students may not be happy with how
they view themselves due to observing others on social media. This was such an intriguing
concept due to the fact that it incorporates many different aspects of social media and selfconcept. Also, it takes an analytical perspective that delves into what makes up somebodys selfperception. Overall, the results of these studies were based on observations of social rituals,
applying them to college students, and demonstrated how their behaviors on the Internet
reflected their self-concept.
Method
We will be conducting qualitative research, which will be exploratory in nature. We plan
to study why college students use social media.
RQ1: Is there a relationship between the self-concept of college students and their use of
social media?
Our independent variable will be social media and our dependent variables will be
college students and their self-concepts. We hope to further discover what rewards these

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-10

participants receive from using social media. Do they use social media to simply communicate
with friends? Is social media hindering face-to-face communication? To answer these questions
we will conduct individual interviews, focus groups, and surveys.

Participants
Participants will be male and female college students nationwide between the ages of 18
and 22 years old. The studies we have reviewed have included participants of all genders and
races and will be chosen at colleges nationwide based on a combination of probability and
nonprobability sampling. Since there is a specific desired population that consists of college
students aged 18 to 22, convenience sampling will come into play, a type of nonprobability
sampling. Convenience sampling is easily accessed and has the benefit of making potential
participants being easily located and identified. Participants are required to fit a certain set of
standards and must be within the desired sample size of at least four hundred. Therefore,
nonprobability sampling must then be utilized. Once the researchers have narrowed the
participants down to college students, in order to only work with 400 students they must now
incorporate probability sampling, specifically simple random sampling. This is because
participants need to be equally likely to be chosen as well as being representative of the entire
population of college students nationwide. We will contact participants through various methods
such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups.
Instruments
To collect data from college students regarding social media we will first ask our focus
group a series of questions about their social networking habits. First, we will define self-concept
to all participants as ones image of themselves. We will ask them how their self-concept is

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-11

affected when using social media. After this step, we will conduct our surveys and interviews
with questions based off of the results found from the focus group. Before participants can
complete the surveys and interviews they must meet our inclusion criterion of being a college
student between the ages of 18 and 22 years old. The surveys and interviews will have questions
that will be measured on a Likert-type scale. Participants will answer the question does social
media affect their self-concept using the likert scale: strongly agree, agree, neither, disagree,
strongly disagree, and so on. By using this scale, we will be able to further understand how our
four hundred participants use social media and how it affects their self-concept.
Proposed Sample
In gathering our qualitative research, we will conduct a variety of interviews, focus
groups, and questionnaires. The main question being: Do you consider social media to have a
positive impact on your self-concept? This question will be asked of our main participants,
college students. The broadness of this question will allow us to depict how many students feel
social media positively or negatively affects their self-concept. Gaining this insight is key to why
students feel social media affects them the way it does. How much time are they spending on
social media? How many people are they connecting with? Who are they trying to connect with?
These are all factors that will begin leading to an understanding of how social media will affect a
students self-concept.
Procedures
To begin, we will study Marist college students by conducting focus groups. These
students will be chosen through convenience sampling, as previously stated, they will be asked to
discuss how they use social media and the exact reasons for doing so. There will be multiple
focus groups and each group will include ten participants per session. We will create a safe

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-12

environment for these participants so that they feel welcome to speak freely about their thoughts
regarding social media.
At Marist and other colleges nationwide, participants will also complete a survey. These
surveys will be emailed to college students as well as handed out in classrooms. Some
participants will complete surveys in class in a group environment, while participants that
complete the surveys online will be alone. We will divide these into two separate groups to see if
there are major differences between the surveys taken in the presence of peers and the surveys
taken in private. This will begin to assess if students act differently on social media due to the
surrounding influence of colleagues. In other words, are they employing the gratification theory
by fulfilling their own desires on social media or are students instead attempting to cater to what
they view as the cultural norm?
In reward for taking the survey, students at Marist will receive a red Marist College pen
to use for the survey and then keep afterwards, as well as being served refreshments for their
participation. This can help further insure that most students will be inclined to complete the
survey due to the small incentives they will be given.
To reach college students that do not live in proximity of Marist, we will conduct online
email interviews and phone interviews. The advantage of using email interviews for our study is
that college students will respond freely without constraints of time or without the pressure of
answering in front of other participants. Phone interviews will also help us collect data. The
students give consent when they agree to participate in the study. Since the targeted age group
are considered adults, they will not require consent from a legal guardian.

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-13

Interview/Pre-Screening
Before the survey even begins, the participants will undergo a one-on-one interview to
identify if their involvement would be beneficial to furthering the research. This is how
participants can be screened to ensure the experiment is not compromised. The purpose of the
interview is to single out subjects that would be most reliable in answering the research
questions. For instance, if a potential participant does not actively use social media, they may not
be a feasible candidate for the study. Another factor is their age. They must be the proper
demographic in order for the results to not be skewed.
Survey
As mentioned above, participants will need to answer a series of questions to help researchers
understand if there is a relationship between social media and a college students overall selfconcept. This will be achieved by utilizing the Likert scale, which calculates various degrees of
agreeing or disagreeing on each question. These next possible questions must be answered with
either: (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Sometimes, (4) Often, and (5) Very often (See Appendix
A). Open-ended questions allow the participants to express themselves better, yet it may be more
difficult for researchers to develop a conclusion from the collective responses in this initial pre
test (See Appendix A).
Content Analysis
Several methods will be employed to analyze the final analysis, working back to
gratification theory and cognitive-behavioral theory. The former theory and associated question
is testing the way in which each participant utilizes social media and manipulates it in order to
benefit themselves. Are they looking to fulfill their own desires and attempting to have that
reflect their self-concept? Looking at the cognitive behavioral theory, that examines someone's

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-14

motives behind one's social media use, Lee and Cheung (2014) observed how social media use
can impact a participant's concept of themselves, and ultimately how they choose to act upon
their newly discovered self-concept.
Although our research project deals with qualitative research, Gitimu and Sponcil (2013)
previously calculated a correlation between college students use of social media and their
resulting relationships with friends and family. They studied the correlation between social media
use and corresponding self-concept and essentially found that their correspondence with close
people in their lives did not suffer due to social media.
Most of the information analyzed within the studies completed by Gitmu and Sponcil
(2013) were verbal or came from volunteers who were active participants online. The data
collection method utilized was voluntary submissions. Zach Lee, Cheung Wai-Yu, and Christy
Mei-Kwan offered compensation for completion of their survey regarding the research. By
offering a monetary reward to anyone willing to aide in their experiment, it may have biased the
results. However, with only 200 samples collected, results are less than conclusive.
Further Research
Social media is an evolving form of communication that is showing no signs of
diminishing, and clearly social media continues to play a large role in society. How social media
allows for personal and global growth is yet to be seen. We will continue to study self-concept
through the theories presented throughout and observe how it affects both inter- and
intrapersonal communication. Essentially, to communicate is to connect with others on a large
scale and social media plays a huge role in the quality of day-to-day communication.

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-15

Data Analysis Plan
We plan to collect our data using descriptive statistics. Based off of our independent and
dependent variable, we will conduct this study to further our analysis and discover variances
within our participant groups such as in-person surveys, online surveys, and focus groups using
measures of central tendency such as mean, median and mode for this initial pretest.
Ethical Considerations
Each member of our group is IRB certified; therefore we have been trained to conduct a
study where all participants will be appropriately examined in an ethical manner. All elements of
the research that are gathered from the participants will be stored in a secure location where only
members of our group will have access. After five years, all information regarding participants
will be disposed. All questions will be non-personal and will not affect their psychological wellbeing. The questions will not go into depth about the participants past history. Although some
participants, such as first year students, can be constituted as having a vulnerable mindset, they
will be allowed to discontinue participation at any time. In each part of the study, every
participant will be given a consent form to maintain his or her privacy rights.
Bias
Although we are college students between the ages of 18-22, we have tried to stay as
unbiased as possible regarding our research. This study will be conducted to assess how social
media affects college students and their self concept. Like every participant, we are all affected
differently by social media.
Since we are not addressing at factors such as ethnicity, gender, or economic standing,
there will be less bias present, but the possibility always exist that unintentional bias potentially
skew the results.

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-16

Assumptions
All participants that will be examined in this study have to be a college student that is not
over the age of 22 or under the age of 18. All participants in our focus groups and in the survey
must have similar forms of social media. They also must answer honestly regarding on how they
rely on social media.
Limitations
If we had unlimited time and funds to conduct this study, we would expand our focus
groups to other colleges across the country. We would conduct a longitudinal study and post tests
to see how participants react organically on social media compared to how they communicate in
focus groups. We would have them sign a consent form allowing us to monitor their social media
usage without them knowing exactly when and how we will be monitoring them. Participants
will give their consent to allow researchers to ethically and anonymously monitoring their social
media accounts and collect the data according to IRB guidelines.

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-17

References
Cheung, C., Chiu, P., & Lee, M. (2011). Online social networks: Why do students use facebook
Computers in Human Behavior, 27(4), 13371343-13371343.
Farquhar, L. (2012). Performing and interpreting identity through Facebook imagery.
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies,
19(4), 446-471.
Johnston, K., Chen, K., & Hauman, M. (2013). Changes in use, perception and attitude of first
year students towards Facebook and Twitter. International Conference of Information
Management and Evaluation, 135-140. Retrieved February 23, 2015, from
http://search.proquest.com.online.library.marist.edu/docview/1460848794?
accountid=28549.
Lee, Z., & Cheung, C. (2014). Problematic use of social networking sites: The role of
self-esteem. International Journal of Business and Information, 9(2), 143-159.
Retrieved February 16, 2015, from
http://search.proquest.com.online.library.marist.edu/docview/1636540846?pqorigsite=summon
Pempek, T. A., Yermolayeva, Y. A., & Calvert, S. L. (2009). College students' social networking
experiences on facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(3).
Retrieved on February 17, 2015 from,
http://www.sciencedirect.com.online.library.marist.edu/science/article/pii/S01933973080
01408.

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-18

Sarwat Sultan, & Irshad Hussain. (2012). Social networking of depressed and non-depressed
female college students. I-Manager's Journal on Educational Psychology, 6(3). Retrieved
on March 8th, 2015 from,
http://search.proquest.com.online.library.marist.edu/docview/1473907535/abstract/584F8
CA16D5B45E3PQ/1?accountid=28549
Sponcil, M., & Gitimu, P. (2013). Use of social media by college students: Relationship to
communication and self-concept.Journal of Technology Research, 4, 1-13.
Retrieved February 23, 2015, from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1460848794?accountid=28549
Steinfield, C., Ellison, N. B., & Lampe, C. (2008). Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online
social network sites: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology, 29(6). Retrieved March 8th, 2015 from,
http://www.sciencedirect.com.online.library.marist.edu/science/article/pii/S01933973080
00701.
Valenzuela, S., Park, N., & Kee, K. (2009). Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site?:
Facebook Use and College Students' Life Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation. Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1(14), 875-901.
Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: A uses and
gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 362-369.
Retrieved February 16, 2015, from
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Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-19

Appendix A
Survey and Open-ended questions
These next possible questions must be answered with either: (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3)
Sometimes, (4) Often, and (5) Very often.
1)How often do you post on social media?
2) Do you reach out to others?
3) When do you look at the accounts of your friends?
4) How often are you just browsing social media?
5) Do you share personal information on social media networks?
6) Do you become frustrated if you are not able to connect to social media?
7) Would you delete a social media post if it didnt receive your desired amount of likes?
8) Does social media conflict with any academic responsibilities?
9) Does social media conflict with any social responsibilities?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

How do you want people to perceive you as on social media?

How much do you care about how people perceive you?
Do you believe social media helps or hinders real life relationships?
Is social media generally distracting during day-to-day activities?
How long could you go without checking your social media accounts?
Do you feel as though you have to live up to other peoples standards or expectations of you on

social media?
7. What would you describe as the main difference between communicating online and in person?
8. Do you attempt to change the way you are viewed by others by what you choose to share on
social media?
9. Do you think there are any negatives to people attempting to paint a different image of
themselves online versus in real life?

Self Concept of College Students and their Use of Social Media-20

Appendix B
IRB Certifications