Social Media Usage on Self-Esteem in Young Adults
Mod 5 Prompt 2
Social media usage among young adults has been on the incline for as long as personal technology devices have existed; however, the effects of such usage are vastly unknown as substantial evidence of social media usage does not yet exist. Today, I would like to examine how the frequency use of social media could be having an impact on the self-esteem of young adults. To do that, I will be reviewing two articles: “Generation Validation: The Role of Social Comparison in Use of Instagram Among Emerging Adults (Stapleton et al., 2017)” and “The Impact of Facebook Addiction and Self-Esteem on Students’ Academic Performance: A Multi-Group Analysis (Busalim et al., 2019.”
“Generation Validation: The Role of Social Comparison in Use of Instagram Among Emerging Adults,” focuses on how social comparison affects self-esteem based on the intensity of Instagram usage and how social comparison affects feelings of worthiness and self-esteem in individuals who seek approval from others as forms of validation (Stapleton et al., 2017). With apps like Instagram available, social comparison is almost impossible to avoid among young adults (and most age ranges online). Interestingly enough, Stapleton et al., (2017) found that the intensity of Instagram usage doesn’t have a significant direct effect on users’ self-esteem. Rather, they found that young adults who seek approval from other’s are more likely to be strongly impacted by the intensity of personal Instagram usage. This means, there is no direct link that connects Instagram usage to self-esteem, but instead, there is evidence to suggest that approval seeking individuals’ self-esteems are likely to be affected by social media usage. This is compelling information when discussing guidelines that families should take in regards to technology usage because it focuses on young adults’ metal health rather than simply regulating the number of hours they spend online. While I acknowledge that there are many factors that could affect the well-being of young adults, this research seems to address pre-existing cognitions self-esteem rather than simply stating that self-esteem is affected by media usage.
The second article, “The Impact of Facebook Addiction and Self-Esteem on Students’ Academic Performance: A Multi-Group Analysis,” chooses to focus more on how Facebook addiction affects self-esteem and, as a result, how self-esteem affects academic performance in college students (Busalim et al., 2019). Ultimately, the researchers found that Facebook addiction was correlated with lower self-esteem; however, pre-existing conditions, such as if students sought approval from others to validate themselves, were not taken into consideration. In return, college students who were addicted to Facebook also preformed more poorly than students who weren’t addicted (Buslim et al., 2019). My biggest gripe with this experiment was that it correlated intensity and frequency of Facebook usage to poor academic performance among college students without reviewing various other factors that could have an impact on this conclusion. For example, a student’s home life, ability to learn, or work-life balance could all be factors relating to their rough performance — Facebook addiction only being on aspect. This being said, the correlation between Facebook addiction and academic performance as suggested by Busalim et al. (2019) is noticeable faulty.
In my own life, the amount of time spent on social media hasn’t affected my academic performance. However, I have experienced lowered self-esteem in the past when I sought approval from others rather than looking inwards for acceptance from myself. Therefore, I found that I am more apt to believe in the research suggested by Stapleton et al. (2017). Still, this is only my own personal experience. When examining the use of social media usage on self-esteem in young adults, I believe that greater research needs to go into inspecting other contributions could have an affect. Linking usage and self-esteem is not enough unless all variables are included.
References
Busalim, Abdelsalam H, Masrom, Maslin, & Binti Wan Zakaria, Wan Normeza. (2019). The impact of Facebook Addiction and self-esteem on students’ academic performance: A multi-group analysis. Computers and Education, 142, 103651.
Stapleton, Peta, Luiz, Gabriella, & Chatwin, Hannah. (2017). Generation Validation: The Role of Social Comparison in Use of Instagram Among Emerging Adults. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 20(3), 142–149.