Impact Of Social Media On Self Esteem

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The Impact of Social Media on the Self-Esteem and Well-Being of Emerging Adults According to a Dian de Vries and Rinaldo Kühne (2015), Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site worldwide with over one and a half billion active users every month. Sites like Facebook are most popular among emerging adults, making them the most vulnerable group to the negative effects social media can have on well being for a number of reasons. Individuals in this age range are starting to form and solidify self-perceptions which are directly linked to one’s well-being. Negative self-perceptions are associated with symptoms of depression and positive self-perceptions are associated with a healthier, more positive well-being. (de Vries & Kühne, …show more content…

Vogel et. Al (2014) emphasize in their work that self esteem is a trait that is constantly developing and changing over time. Since it is easily affected and reshaped by individual reactions to daily experiences, they suggest frequent upward social comparison could have a detrimental impact on one’s self esteem. This is significant because self esteem serves various functions related to formation of identity like sense of self worth and acceptance. This suggestion supports the claims made by Dian de Vries, et al. (2015) in that emerging adults are the group most vulnerable to upward social comparison through social media. If upward social comparison can be harmful to self esteem, it is then, by causation, harmful to the development of identity and sense of self, which is already crucial at the age of emerging …show more content…

al (2013) is the examination of rumination, an unfavorable emotion regulation strategy, as the link between social comparison and depressive symptoms or lower self-esteem. Their research revealed a strong positive association between social media use, rumination, and depressive symptoms. Rumination is problematic for one’s self-esteem and well-being because it refers to repeatedly dwelling on one’s distress. The work of Feinstein, et. al (2013) shows results indicating that rumination is likely “a mechanism through which negative social comparison increases depressive symptoms” (p.

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