Publicação
Social Media Usage and User’s Self-Esteem: The Influence of Instagram’s posts on Millennials
| Resumo: | In our digital era, social media has been playing a key role in connecting everyone from all over the world. This phenomenon raised its prevalence given the current pandemic situation, where lockdowns became part of our daily lives, and the internet has been the only escape route. While no one can deny the numerous benefits of such platforms, a less documented dark side of this technology and its effect on the average user’s behavior does exist. This research aims to investigate how social comparison is affecting social media’s consumers’ mental health. More specifically, how Instagram’s posts are affecting the Millennials’ view of their own lives, as well as how being exposed to other people’s lifestyles affect their self-esteem. In extreme cases, high degrees of social comparison might even lead to depression or suicide. To successfully address that, a quantitative and qualitative survey with multiple sections ranging from social media usage to self-esteem evaluation will be conducted, with young Millennials aged between 23 and 38 years old as the main recipient. Results show that an increase usage of Instagram leads to negative views of body image, as well as yielding a high recurrence of upward social comparison, which then have strictly negative effects on life satisfaction, and ultimately selfesteem. |
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| Autores principais: | Ouafik, Yousra |
| Assunto: | Social Media Instagram Self-Image Self-Esteem Social Comparison |
| Ano: | 2022 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório Institucional da UNL |
| Resumo: | In our digital era, social media has been playing a key role in connecting everyone from all over the world. This phenomenon raised its prevalence given the current pandemic situation, where lockdowns became part of our daily lives, and the internet has been the only escape route. While no one can deny the numerous benefits of such platforms, a less documented dark side of this technology and its effect on the average user’s behavior does exist. This research aims to investigate how social comparison is affecting social media’s consumers’ mental health. More specifically, how Instagram’s posts are affecting the Millennials’ view of their own lives, as well as how being exposed to other people’s lifestyles affect their self-esteem. In extreme cases, high degrees of social comparison might even lead to depression or suicide. To successfully address that, a quantitative and qualitative survey with multiple sections ranging from social media usage to self-esteem evaluation will be conducted, with young Millennials aged between 23 and 38 years old as the main recipient. Results show that an increase usage of Instagram leads to negative views of body image, as well as yielding a high recurrence of upward social comparison, which then have strictly negative effects on life satisfaction, and ultimately selfesteem. |
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