The relationship and effects of social media usage and social comparison on self-esteem

Abstract People seeks to surround themselves with others because they´re social beings. The 21st century has offered people to join a new and an exciting social environment called social media. Social media has just about 4 billion active users where it provides information and allows people to communicate in various ways. Being exposed to social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, has led people to spend at least two and a half hours on daily basis using it. Excessive use of social media has led people to have lower self-esteem while at the same time to show higher social comparison. The purpose of the current study was to see whether people with high social comparison that spent a lot of time using Facebook or Instagram, had lower self-esteem. The sample of the study were people who lived in Iceland, 18 years old or older (N =234). Results showed that interaction effects of high social comparison and more social media usage did not have any significant effect on people´s self-esteem. Other hypotheses were tested which showed significant results. Keywords: social beings, social media, social media usage, Facebook, Instagram, well-being, social comparison, self-esteem

Author dc:creator

• Guðjón Hlynur Sigurðarson 1999-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Háskólinn í Reykjavík

• Sálfræði
• Samfélagsmiðlar
• Samskipti
• Vellíðan
• Sjálfsmynd (sálfræði)
• Psychology
• Social media
• Communication
• Well-being
• Self-esteem

Language dc:language.iso

is

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/43266

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/43266