Evaluating Selfies, Likes and Status Updates: Self-Esteem and Its Impact on Social Media Behaviors

EVALUATING SELFIES, LIKES AND STATUS UPDATES 1

Evaluating Selfies, Likes and Status Updates: Self-Esteem

and Its Impact on Social Media Behaviors

Melissa T. McCormack

Marymount Manhattan College


Abstract

The emergence of social media websites has opened doors for users as a communicative outlet to

express their thoughts and ideas throughout the globe. With social media platforms so easily

accessible in today’s society, social networking has been embedded into our daily lives and

social routines. The present study investigated the relationship between self-esteem and common

behaviors found while using social media platforms. Participants filled out a survey and

evaluated statements in regards to the self and social media behaviors based on their own

personal experiences. A significant relationship was found between low self-esteem and all

negative social media behaviors evaluated in the survey. An unexpected finding in the results

was that there was also a significant relationship between low self-esteem and the positive social

media behavior of “Posts from my friends/people I follow have motivated me to change my

lifestyle.”


Evaluating Selfies, Likes and Status Updates: Self-Esteem and its Impact on Social Media

Behaviors

The emergence of social media websites has opened doors for users as a communicative

outlet to express their thoughts and ideas throughout the globe. Instead of retaining information

in earlier platforms where technology was more intensive and some expertise was required to

use, we are now able to create our own content, share our content with people, and respond and

collaborate with them in a user-friendly setting. Social networking platforms, like Facebook and

LinkedIn, help users build and maintain relationships with friends, family, and colleagues and

also connect with others with common interests.

The rise of smartphone usage and the Mobile internet has enabled new advancements in

forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Mobile internet forums, and social

networking (Manikadan, 2013, p. 607). With social media platforms so easily accessible, social

networking has been embedded into our daily lives and social routines. It is cause to wonder the

impact that social media has on one’s self esteem and well-being as the population is consistently

being exposed to this shift of social exchange in society.

Social Media and Well-Being

According to Schlenker (as cited in Kramer & Winter, 2008), humans have a need for

self-esteem, and it is essential that self-esteem should be maintained and/or raised for quality of

life (Kramer & Winter, 2008). James (1890) and Baumeister and Leary (1995) found that as a

fundamental element of human social life, the need to be seen and valued has been

conceptualized as a fulfillment of emotional well-being (as cited in Greenwood, 2013). Social

media presence and communication are vital predictors of social self-esteem and well-being

considering the fact that peer acceptance and interpersonal feedback on the self are both main


features of social networking websites (Valkenburg, Peter & Schouten, 2006, p. 584). Expressing

our own thoughts and ideas puts us in a vulnerable position where we may either be criticized or

praised amongst our peers. With the allowance of a wider audience in social media platforms,

can our daily online social behaviors be a negative or a positive influence on our self-esteem?

Social Comparison Based on Self-Esteem

The capacity of social information presented on social media platforms is astounding.

“While these affordances allow users to keep-up-to-date, they also produce basis for social

comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale.” (Krasnova, Wenninger, Widjaja, and

Buxmann, 2013, p. 1) The over-exposure to social information can lead to negative feelings of

envy or positive feelings to motivate oneself to reach goals based on the user’s posted

information.

The Present Study

Past research studies have examined the relationship between self-esteem, well-being and

the use of social media. The present study was executed to assess the correlation between low

and high self-esteem with specific common social media behaviors. It was hypothesized that

negative behaviors may be correlated with low self-esteem while positive behaviors are

correlated with high self-esteem. The researchers hypothesized that people with lower self-

esteem would be more likely to engage in negative behaviors while social media platforms are

utilized.

Method

Participants


The participants consisted of 24 females, 23 males and 1 transgender between the ages of

20 and 32 who voluntarily filled out the online survey accessible through a link posted on

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Materials

An online questionnaire (available in the Appendix) was completed by the participants

and data collection was provided by an online web survey tool, SurveyGizmo.com. The

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used in questions 3 through 12 which was a widely used self-

esteem measure in social science research (Rosenberg, 1989). Participants were presented with

statements in regards to four key theoretical principles of self-concept formation: reflected

appraisals, social comparisons, self-attributions and psychological centrality. They then

evaluated these statements in a Likert rating scale from 1 for strongly disagree to 5 for strongly

agree. The scale was modified from its original design to include the Neutral option. Based on

their answers, the participants were assigned a self-esteem score. Negative items were reverse

coded so that a high score continued to indicate high self-esteem. The possible range for this

scale was 0 to 40. Self-esteem scores between 20 and 33 were within normal range; scores below

20 suggest low self-esteem. Questions 15 through 20 included statements that reflected common

social media usage behaviors in which participants also used the same Likert rating scale to

evaluate based on their own personal experiences.

Procedure

Participants were recruited by voluntarily accessing the online survey webpage through a

link posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. No incentives were rewarded in the

participation of this survey, and the participants were able to access the survey with the option to


opt-out at any time. Participants who did not fill out the survey in its entirety were excluded from

the results.

The researcher evaluated the data by calculating each participant’s self-esteem score

using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale on page 2 of the online survey. The score ranged from 0-

40. Scores between 20 and 33 were within normal range. Scores below 20 suggested low self-

esteem. Scores are calculated as follows:

For questions 3, 4, 6, 8, 9: Strongly agree = 4, Agree = 3, Neutral = 2, Disagree =1,

Strongly Disagree = 0

For questions 5, 7, 10, 11, 12: Strongly Agree = 0, Agree = 1, Neutral = 2, Disagree = 3,

Strongly Disagree = 4

Each participant’s individual self-esteem score was then compared to each of their

responses on Social Media usage behaviors (questions 15-20) on page 3.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

Of the 47 participants, 93.6% use Facebook, 46.8% use Twitter, 91.5% use Instagram,

36.2% use LinkedIn, 40.4% use Pinterest and 4.3% use another social media platform.

Participants visited or utilized social media platforms on an average of 3 hours per day (M =

2.77, SD = 2.35). The average Self-Esteem Score, ranged from 0 to 40, was 29 (M = 28.98, SD =

7.20).

Variable Correlations


To calculate the correlation between Self-Esteem Score and the amount of hours a person

visited or used social media platforms on a daily basis, a Pearson’s r was used between the two

variables (See Table 1). No correlation was found between the variables.

Table 1. Self-Esteem Score and Hours Spent on Social Media

Self-Esteem Score Number of hours spent using

Social Media

Pearson Correlation 1.000 -2.51

Sig. (2-tailed) .089

N 47.000 47

Pearson’s r was also used to calculate whether Self-Esteem Score and Social Media

behaviors had a correlation (See Table 2). Correlations can be seen in all negative social media

behaviors and in the positive social media behavior of “Posts from my friends/people I follow

have motivated me to change my lifestyle.”

Table 2. Self-Esteem Score and Social Media Behaviors

Pearson’s r Sig. (2-tailed)

“The attention I get from publishing posts on social media

websites makes me feel good.”

-.245 .097

“I have deleted posts I have made because they did not

receive the response I wanted.”

-.522** .000

“I have found myself feeling jealous of what my

friends/people I follow post on social media.”

-.347* .017


“Posts from my friends/people I follow have motivated me

to change my lifestyle.”

-.327* .025

“I find myself comparing my life to others on social media.” -.460** .001

“It bothers me when I do not get enough ‘likes’ or

comments on my most recent post.”

-.479** .001

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Discussion

The present study focused on examining the possibility of a relationship between self-

esteem and social media behaviors. The results were able to back up the researcher’s hypothesis

that people with lower self-esteem would be more likely to engage in negative behaviors while

social media platforms are utilized. However, the length of the usage of social media on a daily

basis does not have an impact on self-esteem.

The lower the Self-Esteem Score, the more likely the person will delete posts they have

published on social media platforms that did not receive the desired response. This social media

behavior had the highest correlation with self-esteem out of all the behaviors. The variable

pattern can also be seen with those with low self-esteem who are bothered by the lack of “likes”

and/or comments received on their posts which was the second highest correlated social media

behavior. This may implicate the importance of self-presentation and self-efficiency. People who

feel competent in presenting themselves will take the opportunity to do so in social networks and

moreover, are comfortable in taking risks by presenting themselves more informally and

referring to themselves more elaborately (Kramer and Winter, 2008). Those who lack this self-


attribution in their self-esteem could rely on “likes” and the positive comments by other users to

make them feel comfortable or more validated with the content they have posted. This notion

also

People who have compared their life to others on social media or felt jealous or envious

emotions in regards to content, like accomplishments or life events, posted by friends or people

they follow also were shown to have lower self-esteem. This behavior can be more detrimental to

one’s self-esteem as it could lead to frustration, exhaustion and cause damage to the individual’s

life satisfaction if experienced over a long period of time (Krasnova, Wenninger, Widjaja and

Buxmann, 2013).

It was unexpected by the researchers to find that a positive social media behavior also

had a significant relationship to lower self-esteem. According to the results, users with lower

self-esteem were more likely to have been motivated to change or alter their lifestyle by the

influence of another person’s social media post. It is possible that people with low self-esteem

will be more eager and motivated to engage in social media activities that are likely to raise self-

esteem according to theories by Steele (1988), Leary (1995) and Schlenker (1980) (as cited in

Kramer and Winter, 2008). Thus, the use of social media in this sense can actually be helpful to

those who would like to improve their self-esteem and well-being.

The present study only shows the relationships with a small sample size and a condensed

age group. To avoid limitations, further research on self-esteem and social media behaviors

could be done involving more participants with a wider range of age to better represent our

information-rich society.


References

Greenwood, D.N. (2013). Fame, facebook, and twitter: How attitudes about fame predict

frequency and nature of social media use. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2(4),

222-236. doi: 10.1037/ppm0000013

Kramer, N.C., & Winter, S. (2008). Impression management 2.0: The relationship of self-esteem,

extraversion, self-efficacy, and self-presentation within social networking sites. Journal

of Media Psychology, 20(3), 106-116. doi: 10.1027/1864- 1105.20.3.106

Krasnova, H., Wenninger, H., Widjaja, T., & Buxmann, P. (2013). Envy on facebook: A hidden

threat to users’ life satisfaction?. 11th international conference on wirtschadftsinformatik.

1-15. Retrieved from http://warhol.wiwi.hu-

berlin.de/~hkrasnova/Ongoing_Research_files/WI 2013 Final Submission Krasnova.pdf

Manikandan, G. (2013). Social media and mobile internet usage: Relational study on teens and

young adults. International Journal of Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Perspectives, 2(4), 607-615.

Rosenberg, Morris. (1989). Society and the adolescent self-image. Revised edition. Middletown,

CT: Wesleyan University Press.


Valkenburg, P.M., Peter, J., & Shouten, A.P. (2006). Friend networking sites and their

relationship to adolescents’ well-being and social self-esteem. Cyber Psychology &

Behavior, 9(5), 584-590.

Wylie, R. C. (1979). The self-concept. Vol. 2. W. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.


Appendix

Social Media Survey

________________________________________

Page One

Informed Consent

You are being offered the opportunity to participate in a research study. The investigators will

answer any questions you might have about this form and the study. In this study, your age,

gender, and other facts about you will be asked. Only the investigator will see these details. You

will not need to sign your name to this short questionnaire as it will be completely anonymous.

Your participation is voluntary and you are free to withdraw your consent and discontinue

participation in this study at any time. You may print this page for your records.

If there are any questions regarding the following survey, please contact Melissa McCormack at

[email protected] or Professor Linda Solomon at [email protected].

________________________________________

(Page 2)

1) What is your gender?*

( ) Male


( ) Female

( ) Other (Please Specify): _________________________________________________

2) What is your age?*

_________________________________________________

Evaluate the following statements to your best knowledge.

3) "I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others."*

( ) Strongly Disagree ( ) Disagree ( ) Neutral ( ) Agree ( ) Strongly Agree

4) "I feel that I have a number of good qualities."*


5) "All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure."*


6) "I am able to do things as well as most other people."*


7) "I feel I do not have much to be proud of."*



8) "I take a positive attitude toward myself."*


9) "On the whole, I am satisfied with myself."*


10) "I wish I could have more respect for myself."*


11) "I certainly feel usless at times."*


12) "At times, I think I am no good at all."*


________________________________________

(Page 3)

13) What social media websites are you registered to? (Check all that apply)*

[ ] Facebook

[ ] Twitter

[ ] Instagram

[ ] LinkedIn


[ ] Pinterest

[ ] Other (Please specify): _________________________________________________

14) On an average, how many hours a day do you generally view or use social media?*

_________________________________________________

Evaluate the following statements to your best knowledge.

15) "The attention I get from publishing posts on social media websites makes me feel good."*


16) "I have deleted posts I have made because they did not recieve the response I wanted."*


17) "I have found myself feeling jealous of what my friends/people I follow post on social

media."*


18) "Posts from my friends/people I follow have motivated me to change my lifestyle."*



19) "I find myself comparing my life to others on social media."*


20) "It bothers me when I do not get enough 'likes' or comments on my most recent post."*


________________________________________

Thank You!

Thank you for taking our survey. Your response is very important to us.

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Evaluating Selfies, Likes and Status Updates: Self-Esteem and Its Impact on Social Media Behaviors