Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter covered the review of related literature in which social media and self-

esteem is discussed. It shows related studies/researches that shows importance to the

making of this new study/investigation.

In this day and age, social media has become an integral part of our lives. It has

created a platform for people to share information instantly and communicate with people

all around the world. As what other people said, social media has been linked to higher

level of loneliness, anxiety, depression, narcissism and decreased social skills.

SELF-ESTEEM
Self-esteem is used to describe a person's overall sense of self-worth or personal

value. Self-esteem is often seen as a personality trait, which means that it tends to be

stable and enduring. Self-esteem can involve a variety of beliefs about the self, such as

the appraisal of one's own appearance, beliefs, emotions and behaviours. According to

one definition (Braden, 1969) there are three key components of self-esteem: Self-esteem

is an essential human need that is vital for survival and normal, healthy development;

Self-esteem arises automatically from within based upon a person's beliefs and

consciousness; Self-esteem occurs in conjunction with a person's thoughts, behaviours,

feelings and actions. Researchers found out that peers are related to a person’s healthy

state of mind, such as self-esteem and satisfaction with life (Bargh et al., 2004).

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Social networking sites (e.g., Instagram and Facebook) are popular online

communication forms among adolescents and emerging adults. Social network site is
defined as a place where you create a public or semi-public profile within a system with

the privacy of your choice. Profiles are unique pages where one can "type oneself into

being" (Sundén, 2003, p. 3) Social Networking Site allows interaction between two

individuals. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise

be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between "latent

ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005) Share different kinds of medium and information to other

users whom you've agreed to share it with. View a list of information that others have

made public. Social Networking Site has been actively used by people today. Social

network sites (SNSs) have become some of the most popular online destinations in recent

years (comScore, 2007a, 2007b). Social Networking Site has become part of everyday

life for many people. Research has mainly focused on self-presentation, privacy settings,

or the consequences of SNS use for bridging and bonding capital (Buffardi et al., 2008).

Although the use of SNS is emerging, there are still questions about what do people do

on this sites, who do they interact with, and how they use social network to their other

online and offline activities. It is important to study the nature of their online social

networks in order to get an understanding of how such online communication relates to

young people's development. The goals of the present study were to explore emerging

adults' use of social networking sites for communication and examined the relation

between their online and offline networks.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES RELATED TO SELF-ESTEEM

However, most research examined the connections between self-esteem, measures

of well-1being, and social capital emphasized the importance of family, intimate

relationships, and close friends (Bishop et al., 1995). Constant, Sproull, and Kiesler
(1996) argued for such a linkage in their research documenting how people show gains

in self-esteem when they provide technical advice to strangers over the internet. Social

media users gain more self-esteem by gaining likes and having positive comments from

friends. Previous work has addressed the role of Facebook and the ability to socialize,

and the role that socializing online plays in supporting self-esteem and various forms of

socialize capital. For example, one study found that getting the attention from others with

the medium you posted can enhance your social self-esteem.

NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

There has been a great deal of research contributing towards the knowledge that

media influences self-esteem, body image and body satisfaction. However, there are not

as much information on how social media may manipulate self-esteem, body image, and

mental health due to the fact that social media is relatively new.

Social media may bring out many issues due to social comparison. According to Kalnes

(2013), there is a perpetual cycle that adolescent girls may engage in due to the

overwhelming amount of time spent on social media; if the girls are constantly comparing

themselves to other from being on social media, it will become a habit, thus degrading

their self-image and self-esteem. Schufreiter(2015) states that, people may compare

many aspects on Facebook including “appearance, clothing style, love life, or social

calendar” and the longer amount of time you spend on Facebook, the more time they

have to compare to others, ”which caused users to begin to feel poorly about themselves

,their self-worth ,and their self-image” (pp.17). Blease (2015) asserts that, because there

are so much social competition on Facebook, individual are being exposed to a variety of
others who appears successful on social media “demonstrated by the content of profile

images, galleries, and status updates” (pp.9).

Another aspect that social media can influence is the sense of belongingness. The

sense of belongingness may increase or decrease based upon the social media use.For

example, if one has many friends or followers on social media, he/she might have a

greater sense of belongingness. On the other hand, people may feel a “disconnection

from society by spending more time perusing others’ profiles on Facebook” (Schufreider,

2015, pp. 15). Having an increased sense of belongingness is incredibly important

because humans are social beings. The level of support and belongingness one has in

life may be a buffer to negative life events or stressful situations. Schufreider (2015) states

that, high levels of connectedness help “individuals manage their emotions…facilitate

keeping the individual’s overwhelming negative feelings at bay” and “can also lessen

one’s low level of self-esteem” (pp. 14). All of these aspects assist an individual to have

greater quality of life. Having a decreased sense of belongingness may contribute to a

poor self- esteem.

Also, people receive social recognition when they get “likes” or “comments” on

their pictures or statuses; “if users receive ‘likes’ or ‘comments’ from high status ‘friends’

this may result in boosts in self-esteem and feelings of well-being” (Blease, 2015, pp. 9).

People also place so much importance and a great amount of their self- worth into amount

of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ they receive on social media; ergo, if they do not receive as

many ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ as they thought they would, it might affect their self-esteem,

self-worth, and trigger mild depressive symptoms. Not only the self- esteem and self-

worth influenced by Facebook use, but also “the level of life satisfaction was the lowest
among addicted Facebook users” (Blachnio, Prezepiorka, Pantic, 2015, pp. 703).

Albooshi (2015) claims people “revealed that their use of social networks like Facebook,

Twitter and Instagram has made their lives worse” (pp.9). Facebook users who are not

addicted are more satisfied with their lives (Blachnio, Prezepiorka, Pantic, 2015, pp. 703).

Unfortunately, the negative impact of social media does not stop there; depending

upon the relationships formed, the tone of the reactions, and frequency of reactions on

social media all play into self-esteem and well-being (Valkenburg, Peter, Schouten, 2006,

pp. 589). It can become very problematic if an individual is receiving a copious amount of

negative reactions on his/her posts or pictures on social media and allows the negativity

to affect his/her well-being and self-esteem. Because “peer acceptance and interpersonal

feedback on the self are important features of friend network sites,” frequent use of these

sites can potentially do more harm than good (Valkenburg, Peter, Schouten, 2006, pp.

584). Adolescents are especially at risk because their self-image is heavily characterized

by peer influence and a significant piece during this developmental period is an “increased

focus on the self” (Valkenburg, Peter, Schouten, 2006, pp. 585).

POSITIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

However it should be noted that some studies, possibly due to the duration of the

study, indicate that there is not a significant correlation between Facebook use and self-

esteem, such as a study conducted over a one-week period of older adolescents at a

university in 2011 (Jelenchick, Eickhoff, & Moreno, 2012). Research has indicated that

there are some positive effects of Facebook use on self-esteem. One study found that

Facebook can enhance “social self-esteem,” including perceptions of one’s physical

appearance, relationships, and romantic appeal, especially when one receives positive
feedback from their peers, notably their friends on Facebook (Gonzalez & Hancock,

2011). Additionally, by allowing users to control what is uploaded and shared online,

Facebook profiles can increase self-esteem through self-presentation. In their study,

Gonzales and Hancock found that Facebook can enhance self-esteem, especially if a

person is allowed to edit the information shared on their profile. It seems that Facebook

allows one to present their ideal self, and since it is one’s optimal self on display, this

leads to positive feelings of self-esteem (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011).

SYNTHESIS

The effect of Social Networking Site on general self-esteem has not been explored

on previous studies. Social Networking Site had the potential to affect temporary states

of self-esteem with the “likes/dislike” and the positive and negative comments to the

shared information. This information affected the person’s perspective of his/her

shortcomings and limitations. There were theories like Objective Self Awareness (OSA)

and Hyper personal Model (Gonzales et al., 2011 p.1) that can compare SNS ‘this

operation to self-esteem with the operation of non-digital information. OSA theory

assumed that a person has the capacity to experience himself as both the subject the

object at the same time. (e.g. the daily routine of a human being) The person is an active

participant in life and is not self-conscious. They become their own “object” of

consciousness when they focus on what they’re doing. According to the OSA theory,

viewing of one’s particular profile lowered the self-esteem. Hyper personal Model, on the

other hand, stated that SNS allowed users to present themselves to others. People tend

carefully share aspects of what they would like to emphasize. Self-presentation affected

one’s perspective to his self. This phenomenon was known as identity shift. It
demonstrated a person’s self-presentation in online space that can impact other users.

Facebook profiles provided sufficiently positively biased stimuli to encounter the

traditional effects of object self-awareness, and instead prompt positive change in self-

esteem. Objective Self-Awareness (OSA) from social psychology and the Hyper personal

Model from computer-mediated communication were used to argue that Facebook would

either diminish or enhance self-esteem respectively. The results revealed that, in contrast

to previous work on OSA, becoming self-aware by viewing one’s own Facebook profile

enhanced self-esteem rather than diminish it. (Gonzales et al., 2011 p.2) Thus, one’s own

Social media profile increased the self-esteem of an individual due to selective self-

presentation and how frequently a person uses it which correlates with changes in self-

esteem.

Based on our observation, we would like to note the gaps or weaknesses of the

journal articles we used for this research. The first gap or problem as stated in the articles

was that people who use the internet have an increase of self-esteem but it was not

mentioned how frequently it was used by the people. Second problem was that it was

stated in the articles the effects of SNS with the users though it was not the social

acceptance when it comes to the self-esteem of the people in question. Lastly, the articles

mentioned that having connections with other people develops self-esteem but not how

much or how frequent communication is needed for a person.

Identifying the gaps was a big help because it was a way in determining what and

where this study focused on. This served as to what difference there was when it comes

to this study and the previous studies regarding the topic. In the first gap, SNS used by

the participants in regards to self-esteem was not that clarified. It may be because it
wasn’t the focus of the research. The frequent use of the participants was used to relate

it to other variables than self-esteem; therefore it was not that clear. In this study, the

frequent use of SNS was one of the variables. In the second gap, social acceptance was

only related to the romantic relationship. It wasn’t stated that social acceptance was one

of the reasons why self-esteem may boost or not. In the third gap, it was mentioned that

building relationships with other people may boost self-esteem or not, but it was not

directly stated that it was because of the use of SNS. Because of that, this study focused

on finding out whether SNS use of participants is related to their self-esteem. It aimed to

know whether they’re positively or negatively correlated.