Running head: the effects on college students of self perception and social media

RUNNING HEAD: THE EFFECTS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS OF SELF PERCEPTION AND SOCIAL MEDIA

The Effects on College Students of Self Perception and Social Media

Quyen Nguyen

Houston Baptist University

Abstract

Technology has become a necessity in this society especially among college students. Many students are obsessed with the number of followers/friends and “likes” they receive on social media. It was found that those spending more hours on social media were those with lower self-esteem. This is a problem that needs to be addressed because not many people are aware of how much self-esteem plays a role in social media. The hypothesis for this research states that students who spend less time on social media are the ones who have more self-respect and more self-esteem. This study included a survey a group of 50 students of various races, ages, and majors in order to determine their dependency upon social media. It was found that there was a negative correlation between the number of friends/followers and the level of self confidence in real life social settings seen in male rather than female subjects. This suggests a difference in the attitude of male and female subjects towards social media. The result of this research would help to improve the understanding of the complex behavior on social media.

Introduction

College students go through a variety of stressors on a daily basis. Living up to the standards perceived by social media in today’s society can leave students feeling distressed and many feeling weak. Feelings of unworthiness and failure often lead students to become obsessed with their self-image, motivating them to change their psychological and physical appearances.

It has been proven that the increase amount of time spent on social media often lead to lowering one’s self-esteem. (Sunstrum, 2014, para. 4). However, this research found that this phenomenon is not necessarily true because what really determines how social media affects an individual is by the group of people that are being surveyed. Furthermore, Sunstrum’s research (2014) does not target any specific group. As a result, behaviors and trends within individual groups may be occluded.

Here, college students are the primary targets of this study. More specifically, the type of people that were surveyed in this research were mainly athletes. Young people are especially susceptible to the influence of the media because they grew up with the media unlike the previous generation. While there are many advantages of the media, such as giving them the sense of belonging to a larger encompassing community, the media also exposes them to many dark places. Stories about cyberbullying and the resulting suicide are not uncommon. It is interesting to see how social media has an effect on these vulnerable group of people. The purpose of this research is to investigate how social media usage affects self-esteem and self-respect and whether social media usage can lead to addiction.

Problem Statement

The use of social media has become a daily routine to most college students. Researchers have found that those who are frequent users of social media, strongly connect their self-esteem with their quality of followers and friendship relationships. However, little research has been done on college students and how the use of social media affects the user’s self-efficacy and self-esteem. Self worth is based upon the amount of friends and followers a user gains, and there is not enough research examining why college students find that having a certain amount of friends is important and how not meeting that level of popularity can lead to the lowering of self-esteem. This research intends to find a correlation between high/low self-esteem with the amount of time spent on social media.

Hypothesis

During this research, it is expected to find how the use of social media may be the main issue that college students base their self worth upon. Research has found that, “there was a significant positive relationship between Facebook intensity and friendship contingent self-esteem was found. No significant relationships between Facebook use and personality or narcissism were discovered.” (Pettijohn, LaPiene, Pettijohn II, Horting, 2012, para. 1). However, it is expected that frequent users of social media can go into depression or feel not liked if they do not receive positive comments or “likes” on their pictures or things that they post. This research is expected to find that male subjects are more likely to have higher confidence in themselves rather than females because female subjects tend to worry a lot about what others think, while male subjects usually care about their accomplishments. Rarely do males post selfies on social media.

Definitions

For the purpose of this study, likes are defined as a feature in communication software such as social networking services, news websites, and blogs where the user can express that they enjoy or support a certain content. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in his or her ability to produce a certain ability with confidence, specifically seen in student athletes. They tend to emphasize on the position they play on a sports team on their biography section of their social media to show off that they are a part of something big on campus. Self-esteem refers to confidence in one’s own abilities and worth. Social media is the use of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter to post things like photos, videos, and send messages. Prime time is the time when most individuals will be checking their social medias.

Assumptions & Limitations

Since the participants of the study are college students using social media, it is assumed that students use social media to “communicate with friends, look at photos and user profiles of other persons, and to pass the time, avoid boredom and procrastinate.” (Pempek et al., 2009, p. 227). The research may be limited by how truthful the participants are when answering the questionnaire considering the fact that not many participants would ever admit that they have self-esteem issues. Another limitation is the time spent on social media. It does not capture how one actively uses social media. Not many people are aware on the amount of hours they spend on social media in one day. Some people may report that they only spend a couple of minutes throughout the day on social media but what they do not realize is a few minutes can add up to hours.

Significance & Importance Justification

There have been several studies done over students’ technology use and how that impacts self-esteem. (Sunstrum, 2014, para. 15). However, there has not been many studies that focuses specifically on the different types of social media apps other than Facebook and the many challenges college students struggle with by the quality of followers and friendship relationships the user receives. “It seems that society indirectly limits many individuals’ freedom to enjoy life by promoting physical expectations they fail to meet.” (Solomon, Venuti, Hodges, Iannuzzelli, Chambliss, 2001, p. 1). By not getting a certain amount of “likes” on a photo, can cause one to loathe their self-worth. Feelings of self-loathing often brings students to become obsessed with their self-image and actions, making them change their physical appearance and how they act. Even though there has been numerous research over these subjects, they were all done on the general population. Minority demographic may be under represented. This research targets college students to investigate their behavior on social media and its effect on their well-being.

It is known that some people may act differently on social media than how they normally are in real life. Social media has become a complicated aspect of today’s society. This researcher noticed that some people will delete their photo after not getting a certain amount of “likes” within a certain time frame and sometimes would repost the photo at a more convenient time. The concept of “prime time” is when individuals will wait for a time when other individuals will most likely log onto their social media. It is interesting to see how there is a time when people are logged onto their social media at the same time.

Based on this research, studies need to be focused on finding the reasons behind what makes the individual feel so comfortable posting things about themselves but also suffer from self-esteem issues. The procedure should begin by surveying each participant with a self image scale to see how individuals see themselves. Having a positive view of oneself can increase their self worth and that can result in a happy healthy lifestyle. Those with high self-esteem usually feel good about themselves and can normally cope with daily struggles and negativity effectively. Whereas, those with low self-esteem will tend to see things in a more negative way and have problems expressing their feelings. Research has shown that, “Substantial evidence shows a link between self-esteem and depression, shyness, loneliness, and alienation.” (Heatherton & Wyland, 2001, p. 1282). It has been known for individuals who think less of themselves to become so depressed that they are willing to take their own life. Cyberbullying is another key issue that needs to be addressed. When people criticize others with mean comments, this often makes the person being bullied feeling self conscious. Pointing out flaws in people usually makes the other person become insecure causing them to believe they have the flaws. Not a lot of people are aware of how serious this issue is and part of the reason why individuals feel this way is because people want to please our society.

Summary of Research and Conclusion

One of the many daily routines that has developed in today’s society is the use of social media. While the use of social media can be a good thing to keep individuals updated with their friends’ and families’ lives, it can also lead to negative effects. Individuals may abuse the use of social media and in doing so can cause self-esteem issues. This researcher believes that the main cause of lowering one’s self worth is through society’s own view of a “perfect” image. Spending many hours on social media can cause one to isolate oneself from reality and that can also be a reason why those with low self-esteem may feel that loneliness. Individuals can lose their ability to socialize with people in real life if they spend too much time on their technology.

Going Forward

In this study, the researcher will focus on a group of college students at a private university. The aim is to investigate their social media usage and attitudes. The researcher hopes to find the effect of the students’ media habits on their self-concept. Each student will be given a survey to complete and the answers will be scored. Results of this study will be extremely helpful in understanding behavior of college students on social media.

Literature Review

Technology has grown leaps and bounds in the past ten years. For many people, they cannot imagine surviving without the help of technology. Though technology is a very useful tool that helps bring people together, it can be a double edged sword. Many college students have the tendency to spend most of their time on social media. “Seventy-two percent of college students are Internet users, and 87% of college students have Internet access.” (Anderson, 2001, p. 21). College is a time where students post a variety of things such as pictures, their current mood, videos, and even share news links onto their social media. “Students and young adults use a variety of technologies at very high levels, much higher than other age groups in the United States.” (Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007, p. 2). Though the total number of types of technologies used is limitless, in this paper the researcher will take a look at social in media in particular which includes: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Many people may not realize it but frequent users of social media tend to base their self worth upon the amount of friends and followers a user gains. The purpose of the literature review is to break down what today’s literature has focused on and how they relate towards the themes in this research. In this review, the researcher will outline three main sections which include: how social media affects self-perception, how self-worth is based upon followers and likes, and how self-esteem affects the user’s life. Many times people will compare themselves to others they deem as equals in order to determine their own abilities and success. (Festinger, 1954, p. 117-118). Viewing photos from another individual’s profile can cause the viewer to compare how he or she looks with the photo. Often times, this causes the individual to start seeing flaws in themselves that no one notices. The next theme discussed in the paper is how closely connected a person’s self-worth is to the amount of attention their posts are receiving on social media. It is common that a person will tie their own self-worth to the amount of ‘likes’ or ‘followers’ they have. Lastly, the paper will discuss how much of an effect social media produces on a person’s self-esteem and how this plays out in a person’s life. The purpose of this study is to see how much of an effect social media has on the lives of college students and what this effect looks like in their lives.

Body Image Perception and its Consequences

Many people use the internet as a way to access information but it has also enabled people to build relationships with others. “Recent studies have found that over 90% of university students have Facebook accounts.” (Cheung, Chiu, & Lee, 2010, p. 1337). The majority of college students use Facebook to keep up with their friends and family. Though students may initially begin their social media accounts as a way to stay connected, it can become a dark presence in their lives. There is a social phenomena called “Facebook stalking” where a person delves into the personal lives of others with the intention of comparing and judging their posts. “According to a study, this multi-user Facebook stalking is, simply put, a conversation starter. This provides them with grist for conversation, often centering on evaluating and assessing people’s online self-presentations.” (McHugh, 2013, para. 12). This is a common thing that college students do today. Sometimes students will screenshot photos and share it amongst their friends to point out the flaws of the individual. “Those who are doing the cyber bullying typically know how to screenshot, in these situations, if they get their hands on an embarrassing picture of another student, they may take a quick snapshot on their cell phone and then continue to pass it around.” (SnapChat Bullying Tactics, 2014, para. 4). Cyber bullying is a common issue that not very many people take seriously.

Criticizing the way someone looks will drive them to do various things that can harm their health. “It has been suggested that media images may be an important predictor of disordered eating behaviors in both male and female college students.” (Wright & Pritchard, 2009, p. 144). There is an abundance of media showing the ‘ideal body type’ not only on personal sites but in general internet usage. Since women have a tendency to have more self-depreciating thoughts, this can cause psychological or emotional harm. For example, pictures of body builders or women with slim bodies on social media or magazines, females tend to have greater negative feelings towards their own bodies. Some females use these models as a means for motivation to exercise and getting in shape. “Physical appearance and attraction are socially mandated norms typically prescribed to women. In order to be perceived as acceptable and feminine in many societies, physical appearance is stressed.” (Voelker & Pentina, 2011, p. 40). Whereas, other women will just have negative feelings which will sometimes cause them to starve themselves in order to become thinner. “The National Health Service revealed that the number of teenagers being admitted to hospital with eating disorders nearly doubled in just three years and social media was the cause of this.” (Woolf, 2015, para. 2). This can cause health problems that many people tend to ignore. “A documented increase in the number of individuals seeking treatment for disordered eating has been blamed on the rise of social media sites such as Facebook.” (Dugan, 2014, p. 8). Since the popularity of social media and technology has been on the rise, there has been higher instances in disorder eating. The fact that there is a correlation to this is astounding.

The amount of emotional and psychological damage that is done to those involved in social media is something to take seriously. Whether it is because of cyber-bullying or social media posts, these people are having their own self-perception affected in a negative way that would not be possible without social media. In previous times, a person would find home or other places as a safe haven from these attacks on their self-esteem, but they are no longer finding one. The portability, accessibility, and sheer necessity has made it nearly impossible to refrain from social media and the internet. Online talking about weight in today’s society has influenced college students to believe that their body has to look a certain way in order to be accepted. Students who do not like the way they look will generally not use their own photo as their profile picture because of fear of others criticizing them. In a study done by Walker et. al (2015), The online fat talk scale was given to students at a university which had nine scenarios in which women express and respond to their weight concerns. For example, a girl and her friends post pictures on Facebook from a recent party. One friend comments that her stomach looks fat. Another friend writes that the girl’s thighs are huge. The girl then replies to those comments with something she hates about her body. (Walker, Thornton, Munmum De Choudhury, Teevan, Bulik, Levinson, & Zerwas, 2014, p. 161).

Not many people notice anything wrong with themselves until someone else mentions it. Often times, people may be influenced by friends. This causes individuals to start being more self-conscious about themselves. “The real problem seems to come when those who are susceptible to media images view those images and then internalize them.” (Engeln-Maddox, 2005, p. 1114-1138; Giles & Close, 2008, p. 1610-1616). If students are constantly exposed to negativity at a younger age, they will have a harder time adjusting and accepting who they are during college since development occurs in adolescents. (Kaneshiro, 2015, para. 1). Without proper sources of help, many students will find themselves with low self-esteem. The issue doesn’t lie in social media solely. One of the main problems with social media is that it gives those people who are already more prone to be affected by these images and socialization a greater ability and span of time to be affected.
Facebook

“As individuals seek to establish a consistent ego identity over the course of their lives, they face a number of defining crises and challenges.” (Erikson, 1968, p.135). Often times these ‘crises and challenges’ can be presented to an individual through social media. According to a study conducted by Ellison et. Al. (2007) and expanded by Ross et. Al. (2009), many Facebook users suffers a dependency on the social media platform (Lee, Moore, Park, & Park, 2012, p. 1039). There is this idea of social compensatory friending which is the act of expanding one’s social networking friend connections as a means to compensate for deficiencies in self-worth. Many times students base their self-worth upon the amount of friends they have. (Valkenburg et al., 2005, p. 383). The friending process is a simple process in which a user sends a friend request by clicking the “add” button and if the other party accepts, the two individuals become ‘friends’. In many instances, students with low self-esteem tend to accept friend requests from people who they have never met before. They do this to increase the number of friends they have in order to feel popular. Since every Facebook profile displays the number of friends at the top of the profile, it is one of the first things seen by individuals that visit the friend’s profile. “When it comes to the traditional notion of friends, people we know personally, whom we can trust, whom we feel some emotional affinity for, some argue that the maximum possible number of social connections one can have is no more than 150.” (Dunbar, 2010, p. 4). However, there is a point of dismissing return. It was found that as the number of friends exceed a threshold, the “friendship” becomes superficial (Dunbar, 2011, p. 81-83). It is important to note how actively one uses Facebook just by the amount of friends they have since the process of friending requires both parties to be online to accept or send the friend request. One of the most interesting and important things to take away from Dunbar’s research (2011) is the differences between true social connections and these false Facebook connections. Why are people more likely to form these artificial connections through social media? Many would argue it is for the sake of appearances. If a person is not close enough or cares enough to keep in touch, what is their motivation for inviting them into their social media sphere? As previously stated a person could use these false relationships in order to boost their number of friends and feel superior or increase their self-perception.

Instagram

Instagram is another leading social media app that allows users to share photos and videos with friends. (Wagner, 2015, para. 3). How Instagram works is the user will have ‘followers’ which essentially are like ‘friends’ on Facebook. These are people who can view the user’s pictures and ‘like’ their photos simply by pressing the heart icon under the picture. Instagram gives users the option to set their profile on private so that only their ‘followers’ can see their pictures. Instagram differs from Facebook by the friending process. Unlike Facebook, when an individual sends a follow request to a user, the user has the choice to accept the request and not follow the other person back. This allows users some measure of protection against online stalking. “Some people spend hours thinking up the perfect caption for photos. Others spend an equal amount of time manipulating their photos and picking out the perfect filter so the end result looks nothing like the original copy.” (Kelley, 2015, para. 6). Self-worth is based upon the amount of followers or likes one receives. Even after hours of editing photos and posting, some people will delete their post if they did not receive a certain amount of likes within a few minutes. (Kelley, 2015). Most of the time, students will accept follow requests from people that they do not even know just so they can increase the number of followers they have. Students often look at the number of followers and following a user has and usually determine whether that person is cool or not. If the user has a higher number of followers, than the amount of people they follow, they are considered as cool. There are even places where people can pay for ‘followers’ and ‘likes’. Instagram users like to have more followers than following so in order to achieve this, they are willing to unfollow some users just to decrease that number. There are various blogs online that even teach individuals how to achieve more followers. It is interesting to see how desperate people are for attention. Instagram famous status is achieved when the user gets over 1,000 likes on their post and have over 1,000 followers. There are students who care about their self-image and are willing to buy their followers and likes on their photos. There are several apps that will notify users who did not follow them and even show the person who has unfollowed them. College students should not care about these kinds of things, but in today’s society, many students are too caught up with trying to be popular that they are willing to buy these apps. Another key aspect about Instagram is some users tend to post more than one photo onto their profile which causes spam in the follower’s newsfeed. Most followers will not press the “like” button if this occurs too often. Double posting is scrutinized by today’s society. (Bloomingdale, 2015, para. 6). There is this idea of “prime time” which is the best time users should upload their pictures because that is the time when most people are on logged onto their social media apps. The best time is in the mornings when people like to lounge in their bed before getting out of bed and the evening when people are about to go to bed. Many college students strategically plan when they will post their pictures and often times the user with the most creative or funny caption will end up getting a “like”. (Beres, 2015, para. 2). The nature of Instagram is set up for comparison. The whole system revolves around not what is being shared, rather how many people like it, or how many followers a person has. It can be easy for people to fall into the trap of comparison.

The Effects of Self-esteem

The effects of self-esteem can result in an increase of loneliness, plastic surgery, suicide rates, and incidences of disordered eating because these students often feel that they are not adequate enough. (Emotional Symptoms & Consequences of Low Self-Esteem, n.d.). “A sample of 100 university students, users with low self-esteem were found to check Facebook more often and spend more time on Facebook” (Mehdizadeh, 2010, p. 357). This finding is consistent with Ellison et al. (2007) who suggested that Facebook may help to compensate for low self-esteem and allow these students to build social capital. (Ellison, Stenfield, & Lampe, 2007, p. 1143). In these two studies, it highlights how social media can affect the self-esteem of individuals. As previously stated, social media can decrease the self esteem of those who participate in it, and those with low self-esteem have a higher propensity to be active. It is easy to see how it can become a downfall for these individuals. In contrast, Gonzales and Hancock (2011) used analysis of variance to analyze data from 63 students and reported that Facebook has a positive impact on self-esteem. Gonzales and Hancock argued that creating and updating one’s profile actually enhances self-esteem because users can limit the information about themselves on their profile by only presenting the positive characteristics about themselves. (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011, p. 79). This is contradictory; even though it may enhance one’s self-esteem, it may only enhance their self-esteem for a short period of time. One reason that it only enhances their self-esteem for a short period of time is because the version of themselves they are portraying is not their true selves. There is this idea of “catfishing” where a person will create a false online identity in the hopes of luring people into thinking that they are someone else. (Peterson, 2013, para. 1). Also the individual would be spending quite some time online trying to edit their profile. There is this concept of internet paradox, which states that increased internet use was associated with greater feelings of loneliness (Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark, Kiesler, Mukopadhyay & Scherlis, 1998, p. 1017). Spending too much time on the internet can isolate the individual from the social world which can cause loneliness. “Physical appearance and attraction are socially mandated norms typically prescribed to women. In order to be perceived as acceptable and feminine in many societies, physical appearance is stressed.” (Voelker & Pentina, 2011, p. 40). The expectations from today’s society of their ideal “perfect body” has driven individuals to get plastic surgery in order to be socially accepted.

Shah (2010) conducted a cross-national study that examined the association between general population suicide rates and the prevalence of Internet users, using data from the World Health Organization’s and the United Nations Development Program’s Websites. Shah showed that the prevalence of Internet users was positively correlated with general population suicide rates. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the prevalence of Internet use was independently associated with general population suicide rates in men and approached statistical significance for women. (Shah, 2010, p. 146).
Cyberbullying is a serious problem and is often referred to when an individual is intentionally and repeatedly targeted by another individual in the form of threats or harassments through the use of text messages, e-mail, and different social media apps. The internet is a tool that is easily misused. For example, the internet has provided information on how-to commit suicide descriptions which is easily accessible by people. Disordered eating behavior is often referred to dieting, laxative use, fasting, binge eating and is commonly seen in college-aged women. (Field, Sonneville, & Crosby, 2014, p. 34). The amount of time spent on social media has been associated with disordered eating behaviors. (Tiggemann & Slater, 2013, p. 630). Physical appearance comparisons occur mostly on Facebook and Instagram. Because of the amount of time spent on social media, the individual will start to obsess over looking at photos of people and will start to compare themselves. Sometimes, the individual will criticize another person’s picture in order to make themselves feel worthy. Students with low self-esteem will try enhance their self-esteem by only selecting what information they want to be shown on their profiles.

Conclusion

College students often base their worth on social media. They are willing to do things like delete their photos, pay for apps, or harm their well-being in order to please people of this society. If students are more aware of how social media can affect them, they may be more likely to spend less time on social media. In this study, the researcher hopes to find students who spend less time on social media to be the ones who have a higher respect of oneself and a higher sense of self-esteem/self-efficacy. Also to find that those that spend more hours on social media are those with low self-esteem. The researcher also wants to see the number of college students that are dependent upon social media by trying to find out how students would feel if they were forced to delete their social media. It is predicted that those that refuse to delete their social media might make up excuses which just shows how dependent people are with social media.

Methods