"A popular view on the etiology of narcissism, rooted initially in psychoanalytic theory, proposes that narcissism is deep-seated in fragile self-esteem or vulnerability to shame. Although this hypothesis is widely accepted in clinical psychology, empirical evidence presents both equivocal and inverse findings with regards to this relationship. Despite this uncertainty, this association was used to hypothesize that individuals with low self-esteem would be correlated with a greater amount of Facebook activity. As predicted, results indicated a significant negative correlation between self-esteem and Facebook activity. Specifically, individuals who rated lower on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were correlated with a greater amount of time spent of Facebook per session and a greater number of Facebook logins per day."
Please respond to this quote/conclusion. Why do you think this is case?
Next, this past week Australian teen model Essena O'Neil made a major public announcement that she was quitting social media (well kind of). At least one news organization reported:
"I'm the girl who had it all and I want to tell you that having it all on social media means nothing to your real life...Everything I did was for likes and for followers. I did shoot for hours just to get photos for Instagram."
A couple days after the initial announcement, she ironically announced that she was keeping her accounts, renaming the Instagram account "Social Media Is Not Real Life." She said she was now going to use social media to spread her anti-social media message "organically" and focused on things like veganism.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. Particularly the part about using social media to campaign against its "fakeness."
Due: Nov. 11 @ 5 p.m.
In response to the quote from our reading, I immediately thought about a co-worker of mine. She is probably one of the most active people I know on social media. Not only is she extremely active on Facebook, but she is also very active on Twitter and Instagram as well. I tried to think about how often I get on Facebook (outside of work since social media is my job) and on my personal account I probably spend about 15 minutes a day. My co-worker is constantly posting and constantly logged in. She is obsessed with how many followers she has and considers you ridiculous if you are not active on social media. I then remembered that she is constantly complaining about what others say about her, she is also always talking about new workouts and her hard core diets to lose weight. She is pretty focused on material items (like expensive clothing and bags) and other things along those lines. I never made the correlation that the most active person I know on social media is also the person least satisfied with life whether it be her image or material belongings.
ReplyDeleteI then also thought about my sister in law. She literally posts on facebook and instagram multiple times a day. It seems as if she needs everyone to know how great her life is because she is constantly posting about her cute little son (maybe I am biased because that little guy is my nephew). That point aside, I also notice that she has a lot of spare time spending most of her days at home with a two year old. In her case, some of it may be related to self-esteem but in a different way. I think her opportunities to be social are limited and so she uses Facebook and Instagram solely as a social outlet. So in a way, I could definitely see a correlation between social media activity and lack of self-esteem due to no social opportunities in reality.
In regards to “using social media to campaign against its ‘fakeness’” I honestly feel like this was a publicity stunt. She ended up gaining way more followers. If she was willing to spend hours on a photo shoot just for an instagram post, I’m sure she would make a fraud announcement just to gain more followers and publicity. At least one benefit that may have come from this announcement is the idea in people’s head that social media is not reality. You only see what people want you to see. I did a little further research on this girl and social media was her job. Many of her photos she was paid to wear clothes and use specific captions. So technically, none of her posts were real.
I honestly don’t feel like you can effectively campaign against the fakeness of social media while still using it, which is difficult because that is where your audience is. By continuing to use social media you are still choosing what get’s posted or shared (which is altering reality).
As I continued to think about this, isn’t all media technically “fake”. In each medium you are only seeing what someone else has chosen to show you. I think a great start to a campaign against the fakeness of social media is to encourage people to become involved physically rather than through cyberspace. We could also educate our youth on the truth about social media so they are more equipped emotionally to understand that other people’s lives are not perfect.
This would be quite the task, but I’m not sure if this model’s act really did the trick. It seemed pretty staged and I feel like because she didn’t really drop of social media, I question her intentions for the announcement, which added to my distrust in media as a whole.
The uses and gratifications sought through social media use are very interesting. The types of social media and the way in which they can be used are transforming daily. It was interesting how much our reading discussed Myspace and other social media platforms that are basically dead today.
ReplyDeleteThe research regarding narcissists was of particular interest to me. We all know the person that is consistently posting to get attention and likes. They turn to social media as a way to be re-assured that they have value and that other people care about what they are eating for dinner. It is also interesting to see how social media use changes with age and experience. I would say that I originally used social media as a way to socialize and make sure that I was in the know. Now, I use social media sparingly, but when I do use social media it tends to be for informational and entertainment purposes.
In a given day I typically check Facebook once or twice, but this last weekend when everyone was talking about the church’s policy on baptism for children of gay and polygamist parents, I was checking in every 15 minutes. I had no intention of posting or sharing my feelings on the issue, but I was mainly interested in seeing how people were reacting to the policy. Sadly, I have to admit that about half of the news that I consume is based on links and articles that friends have shared on social media. I try to stay informed by checking NY Times and other valid news sources, but sometimes it’s easier to just get on Facebook and see what’s happening.
I read about the young woman in Australia that was deactivating her account, but I did not realize that she was creating a new account to discredit social media use through social channels. I find it almost laughable that she is using the social media to talk about how social media is bad. I imagine she misses the daily attention and audience that validates and admires her. I looked at her newest website: http://www.letsbegamechangers.com/ that discusses issues with social media and the problems it can cause. In one of her videos, Essena talked about how at the age of 12 she studied all of the social media influencers particularly those that modeled. She would read about each of them so that she could compare herself and work to become more like them. She would Google their waist size in centimeters and compare it to her own. Over time of course she became one of them and at one point had as much as 500k followers. Although it is ironic that she is using social media to disseminate her new beliefs, it is likely doing some good for young girls to here her speak out and perhaps getting sucked into trying to fit in online.
This is rather personal, but my ex husband has narcissist personality disorder, so to better understand my experiences I did a lot of hobby studying on the subject. So yes, I think that quote is absolutely accurate that it is related to low self-esteem. Most people who are diagnosably narcissistic were verbally abused as children. They learn to hate themselves, and then create a likable false self layer over their inner-hated self. Preserving this likable false-self layer is a matter of life or death for a narcissist. That’s why they seem so shallow and into themselves, because it’s all they’ve got to emotionally survive.
ReplyDeleteMy disclaimer here: Everybody has some narcissistic traits, and some degree of ego self-preservation is considered healthy. It’s when that ego preservation becomes more important than the fundamental rights of others to exist independently of your ego that you start to enter the malignant disordered zone. Disordered narcissists go through intense cycles similar to bipolar cycles. After a Narcissistic injury, there is depression and angst, from which they gradually pull up, until there is a big narcissistic supply boost, which makes them literally high, and them some injury happens and it starts all over again. The difficulty with disordered narcissists and social media is that a comment, which is relatively benign, will make or break them – make them feel destroyed or high. They are so fragile in either direction precisely because their whole self concept is so dependent on others. So after reading the research it would be interesting to see more social media research on full on disordered narcissists. I’d bet their social media use would follow the narcissist injury/supply cycle in some interesting ways.
Essana’s use social media to decry the use of social media will probably not be getting the healing she needs - unless she posts her thoughts and walks away without tracking likes or responses. There is, however, something to be said for reaching a target audience. She’s certainly using an effective route to get her message to those who need it most.
As the use of Social media continues to evolve, more and more users unconsciously (perhaps consciously sometimes) sacrifice their ‘real’ self on the altar of their ‘ideal’ self. We all have an ideal self though i.e who we feel we should be which is why we aspire to be successful, maximize our careers, be outstanding or even outstand others in our profession. These aspirations are not really bad in itself (or why do you think I am here as an international student?) but when we present a hyper-idealistic version of ourselves on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Youtube e.t.c that is when we create a sense of false self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteIf I rely on empirical observation of my friends and associates from Nigeria on my Facebook account, the hypothesis “that individuals with low self-esteem would be correlated with a greater amount of Facebook activity” might hold true for some users. I have observed over time, how those considered to be average income earners or underemployed seem to be more frequent on social media. They don’t just log-in, they validate themselves by posting photos that exaggerate their ideal self. In contrast, those believed to have better economic status tend to be more realistic and reasonable with their posts and comments on Facebook.
This, also played out when I posted photos of me on Temple square few days of my arrival in SLC. Like the Muslims would visit Mecca, I had longed to visit the Salt Lake Temple at least once in a life time to appreciate the beauty and sacrifice of the Pioneers whose labors of faith built such an enduring and magnificent edifice with energy sapping technology available to them at that time.
For me, and because of my religious leaning, being on Temple square was a privilege and personal accomplishment that I cannot wait to share on my Facebook account, but alas! the spiritual connotation was lost by the reactions I got from posting the photos. I was overwhelmed by the barrage of comments (both positive and negative), increasing likes and annoying misconceptions that the photos are an attempt to announce my (perceived) new state of wealth and power in America. I realize how futile it was to correct some non-conformists as the comments tilt towards unhealthy immigration challenges and America being the fallacious “Gods own Country.” I simply stared at the computer and exclaimed “Facebook” is such a “Fakebook.”
In the same token, I think the Australian teen model, Essena O’Neil is simply reinforcing the “fakeness of using social media with her recent announcement. She successfully used her online platform and social relationship to build a pervasive pattern of grandiosity and exaggerated sense of self-importance, yet she desires to keep the same account, barely renaming it to launch a campaign that “social media is not real life” that, in my opinion is fraudulent. How would she divulge from the minds of those who had already cultivated the inflated, unrealistic version of herself as normative? Would her new appearance be devoid of physical attractiveness, make-ups and make-overs? I really would be interested in how she plans to re-construct the normative beliefs her supermodel identity created for other teens who adore and adopted her appearance and how she would align the “Real” Essena O’Neil with the “Ideal” Essena O’Neil.
My final take is simple, everything about our online persona, should always be reflective of our offline persona.
We’ve become a society of “Like.” “Like” my post. “Like” my photo. “Like” my video. “Like our Facebook page.” “Like our ad.” We make a post, sit back, and watch the “Like” count mount up. We feel good about our post. We feel good about our photo. We feel good about our video. We feel good our Facebook page. We feel good about our ad. The more “Like,” the better we feel about ourselves. Our self-concept rises. Our self-esteem increases; yes, I am somebody. We’re on Cloud 9 for the day, but it may only be a façade, and the “cloud” dissipates. So we feel the need to brew another storm… make another post, upload another photo. We need more likes. We need to feel like somebody again. We need another “cloud” to perch high on. Now imagine the flipside. Imagine, like YouTube, Mark Zuckerberg added a “Dislike” icon on Facebook. Egos would burst. Self-esteems and self-concepts would plummet. Friendships would be shatter. For adolescents, cyber bullying would have another tool – the “Dislike” icon. Teenage suicides could rise. Violence in school could increase, including the unthinkable and most egregious, school shootings. Sadly, we’ve become a society of “Like.”
ReplyDeleteI believe because of that one simple “Like” icon, Facebook has become a venue where narcissism thrives. Mehdizadeh (2010) defined this term as the “need for admiration, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance.” Why on earth do we post photos of our vacations, children, accomplishments, etc.? It’s because we want our “friends,” most of whom we haven’t seen in longer than a decade, to “Like” us… to admire us. It’s been so long, the only conclusion these friends can make about our successes or failures in life is what they see on social media. Of course, we are not posting our failures. So, I somewhat agree with research that shows individuals higher in narcissism and lower in self-esteem use social media more and post more self-promotional content. When one’s self-esteem is down, they need an emotional boost. One post on Facebook can provide instant gratification when the “Like” count rises. Facebook allows us to control our image, and our image is tied to our self-esteem and self-concept. Personally, I’m a light Facebook user, and I have high self-esteem and self-concept. My personal and emotional worth is not tied to “Like,” though I do like the likes (but I could care less). A couple months ago, I took down my Facebook page. This only lasted for a couple days. It was not because I felt a need to use Facebook, it was because I didn’t want to offend any of my “friends” who would think I “unfriend” them because I no longer like them.
In response to Essena O’Neil’s decision to spread anti-social media messages, I have some problems with that. I feel it’s okay for her to choose to not use social media; that is her prerogative. If she wants to leave social media, then she should leave social media alone, and allow others who use the sites for gratification to do so unencumbered. It’s similar to people who leave the LDS Church, but make it their mission in life to continue to publicly bad-mouth the church and let everybody know how bad they feel it is. Leave the church and leave the church alone. If the church makes somebody happy, let him or her continue to worship in peace. If social makes somebody happy and brings satisfaction, even short-lived, let him or her worship the digital platforms in peace.
I'd like an "empathy" button for when people post sad statuses. I want to acknowledge them, but it doesn't feel appropriate to hit "like" on bad news.
DeleteThe assumption that is made by the clinical psychologists and the authors of the Facebook study is the connection of narcissism and self esteem. The clinical psychologists assume that low self esteem leads to narcissism and the authors of the Facebook study assume that someone with low self esteem (and therefore a narcissist) will use Facebook more often. The fact that someone with low self esteem does use Facebook more often does use Facebook more often does not implicate anything to do with narcissism. It seems like all of these statements and assumptions are made arbitrarily based on gut instinct and not on well reasoned arguments based in research. This sort of assumption leads to wasted studies when peer reviewing does not do its job by nipping it in the bud.
ReplyDeleteCynic: Very good, Essena. I have never heard of you, likely because you have done nothing meriting notice, until you made this ridiculous announcement. Your publicists deserves a big fat raise for this one. This move may increase your likes and following much more than any of the 'fake' things you were doing up until now. This quitting of social media while not quitting at all just shows the depths people will fall to breaking through the noise and clutter of the social media world. I have now fallen into your trap by potentially increasing your publicity by writing this.
Non-cynic: I applaud your bravery in recognizing that there is a difference between you as portrayed in the social media and you in real life. This includes your relationships with others; real life ones and ones played out through social media. In the end, the most rewarding and fulfilling relationships will be those rooted in real life. Social media may enhance those relationships, but can never truly replace them.
My true feelings lie somewhere near the junction of apathy and indifference. I don't know this person and have no idea who she is. If she wants to rail against the system them have at it. I will just continue to not care anything about you.
Hey Darren, I kinda feel like you do. I am just concerned that the girl is not really going to change because she will be in an environment that wont help her. The way she can trully prove that she doesnt care about likes is by stepping away for a time or only producing some kind of web content periodically, like a monthly blog. But even that might be too much
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ReplyDeleteI agree with this quote and that is the very reason I don’t get on to Facebook that often and rarely post anything about myself. I consider myself a person with a lower self-esteem than others so I have to tame this by not exposing myself to content or behavior that can make it worse. Several years ago when I was going through a little bit more than usual self-esteem issues I found myself posting things on Facebook and checking to constantly to see if anyone liked it. But not too many people did ha. I clearly recognized that this type of behavior was not going to help me. So that’s why I usually stay clear of social media. Now I understand that this doesn’t apply to everyone because there are some people that have minimal or no self-esteem/narcissism issues. They are happy-go-getters that like to promote positive material on Facebook and funny stories and pictures (like cats) that can be shared mutually and in moderation. And that is the key word of the day.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s simple why we see much narcissistic content on Facebook. In our individualistic society, most people want to look good, feel smart, contribute something, and feel validated. Facebook has facilitated this self-centered and many times selfish behavior among its users because of its accessibility. In other words, it’s free and it’s going to be used for me! We can analyze the example of Essena. Years ago, I would have no clue who she is, but thanks to social media, my wife told me all about her several months ago and her organic food advocacy.
But obviously Ms. O’Neil had a serious addiction and self-esteem problem. On her initial post as to why she was going to close her social media accounts, she reported that she had actually been starving herself in order to look her best for her modeling photo shoots. She had been behaving contrary to her organic health promotion. She said that she also did everything for the likes she would get and that was her obsession. I find it possible that this young woman may also deal with more serious issues like body image and depression. These behaviors exhibit a gap that needs to be filled psychologically. Sadly what may add to her increased lack of self-esteem was the large amount of followers and likes she received daily. More led to more. In contrast, when I tried posting something on Facebook, no one liked it so I just avoiding the whole thing to reduce the disappointment or anxiety.
When I first heard about the truth of Essena, I was a little bit agitated at her “fakeness”. Ms. O’ Neil reported in last you tube video that she didn’t know what else she could do to make money. But she obviously must have good writing skills. Here was someone that my wife thought was a great example of health, but I feel that everything Essena did was just so someone would like it. I’m sure there was some sincerity in her posts, but that sincerity was clearly clouded and outweighed by the need to self-promote. And unfortunately, I don’t feel that her maintaining of social media accounts will not help. Her real problem isn’t the likes she is getting but that she has an excessive need to feel validated. Those same tendencies will most likely be exhibited in this new venturing. It is like the recovering alcoholic who says they are going to warn people about the danger of alcohol in the bar. Not a very encouraging environment.
In coincidence with the fakeness concept, Mehdizadeh referred to Young and Pinsky (2006) to indicate that narcissist are prevalent on reality television. And indeed they may be. Through social cognitive theory, Stefanone and Lackaff (2010) predicted that viewers of reality TV would model social network site behavior found on reality programs. They found that exposure to reality TV led to more time logged in social network sites and more social network contacts that were strangers. I guess it could be true that the narcissist on reality TV are producing more narcissist of their viewers. And we all know that reality TV is not fake, right?
I think there are a few factors that could explain why people with low self-esteem are always on Facebook. First, you can get quantifiable proof of your popularity/social success. You can count the number of friends, likes, and comments you receive and obtain validation for your thoughts, pictures, activities, and experiences. People with low self-esteem turn to Facebook to prove to themselves that people care about their existence and approve of their life.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason is that it can make them feel part of “key” communities. If you are in the same group as other cool, confident people, you, by association, can also think of yourself as cool and confident. Or, if you like the right pages or are friends with the right people, those associations act as proof that you too are awesome. You can create an image for yourself through the ties you have on Facebook.
Going in the opposite direction, Facebook can also cause low self-esteem because you see people’s ideal lives. You don’t see the ugly pictures or bad life moments. You only see the good (generally speaking). It is easy to compare your life (of which you know all the gory details) to the polished lives of your friends on Facebook. But that is like comparing apples and mud pies. It just isn’t the same. And it will drag you down.
As for the anti-social-media social media campaign, I think it has some strengths and weaknesses. First, it only makes sense to preach against social media in a way that people obsessed with social media can access it. And that would be via social media. It is definitely ironic, but what can you do.
I think the campaign could turn sour if used improperly, but if handled well, I think it could be quite helpful to many people. I don’t really know the details of what she is planning, but I would advise that she only posts very little - maybe one short message a day. Going on and on will only drag people in. Giving long speeches about the evils of social media, initiating long and complicated discussions, or posting too many pictures will not help people cut back on their social media use. She would just be fueling the fire she is trying to put out. Instead, a short message with perhaps a simple picture encouraging people to get off their phone or computer and do something real would be more effective.
It's so interesting because I saw Essena O'Neil's story just a few days ago. I think she meant well. Her Instagram account "Social Media is Not Real Life" had some important information for people to read about. She talked about how she wouldn't eat to be thin, how everything was posed and wasn't spontaneous. I think all of her teen girl followers needed to know what she went through. In a way, good for her.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't think that switching to a veganism oriented platform takes away any fakeness. It's still her saying: "Look at me! I'm cool. You should follow me and like my vegan stuff." And now she's trying to call out everyone else on their fakeness when she is still just as fake! A recent post talked about how she is calling out fake instagram couples. I think it's great that she has come out with it, but she also doesn't need to ruin things for other people who can choose to present themselves as they wish. They might be fake, but who is she to say?
We are all somewhat fake on social media. I was curious and looked at my own Facebook page. I had mostly self-promoting posts (pictures with my husband and friends on Halloween, a post about how time flies with me with my husband after he proposed), but then I also had some scripture posts, and some shout outs to other people that I care about. Any negative-nancy would say that even the scriptures and shout outs are self-promoting, but I don't think that's true. Either way, we all promote our best selves on Facebook. And the people who don't are trying to get attention in another way. For example, I know a girl who always posts about how fat she is. All the comments are like, "You are so pretty!; No you are not!; I think you look great; You are skinnier than me." So I would say that most of the time, social media is about promoting our best selves or feeling better about ourselves. It's no wonder that as part of Elder Bednar's ShareGoodness Hashtag campaign that he said to be authentic...because we all have a little work to do in that regard.
As a person with history of “Facebook addiction” as I like to call it, I have analyzed my personal reasons for overusing social media in general and Facebook in particular. I noticed that my FB activity would greatly increase in times of loneliness or shattered self-esteem (think bad breakup). I would log in every 10 minutes after posting a picture just to see who liked my posts and be reassured that I am interesting to other people. Every new follower made me feel pretty, every like meant that somebody looks at my profile, and it felt like I wasn’t so alone. I stopped experiencing real life, because every time I was in a picture perfect situation I would do just that, take pictures. Not enjoying the beautiful sunset on my morning run, not playing in the sand with friends or hugging my best friend.. oh wait, I did all of that too, but just long enough to take the perfect photo. I eventually realized that I was missing out on life by giving it up for social media praise. I had to force myself to get off of Facebook and actually put my phone down and let myself enjoy life, instead of worrying about capturing “the perfect moment”.
ReplyDeleteNow on to the “using social media to campaign against social media” question. I am a huge believer in the positive influence of technology when it is used appropriately. Information is vital in our day and time and the ability to spread a message is one of the main blessings provided by technology today. Celebrities are the most influential people in our society and the fact that they recognize that social media can be used for good or for evil, and chose to use it for good tells me that there is hope for our society.
Oooh, Facebook. How it has revolutionized and possibly ruined so many things around us. I remember back in the day, circa 2007, when I became a member of the Facebook crowd. Perceptions about friendship changed abruptly...you finally were someone’s REAL friend if you had become friends on Facebook. It became some sort of societal “right of passage”. People today -- and unfortunately I can’t just say young people -- but people of all ages -- look to Facebook for an identity. We form our identity in part based off of what other people think of us...which in part is based off of what is important to other people (and we thus adapt that in order to be important to them). We also give meaning to our life based on these interactions that we have with other people. Social comparison theory seems to have a bit of a place here as well because we inadvertently are given the tools - the very ACCESSIBLE TOOLS to compare ourselves with other people on social media. This, in turn, can take self-esteem for a roller coaster ride to disaster. Thus why I hate Facebook and let my husband manage our joint account.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Mehdizadeh’s conclusion -- I have read various other studies in my Facebook research indicating that low self-esteem was equated with greater time spent on Facebook. Earlier this year, Dr. Robinson, Janice Cho and myself conducted a Q-sort study on why people use Facebook - and some of our findings also point to this conclusion. We found that there were four different “types” of Facebook users: The relationship builders, the town criers, the selfies and the window shoppers. The selfies in particular were a part of Facebook because they found meaning and satisfaction (eventually self-esteem builders) through posting pictures and getting likes, comments, etc. Not all Facebook users are like this, but as society values Facebook and social media more and more, it becomes a more viable source to tell us what is “valuable” in life.
Now, onto the Australian model. She would likely fall into our Facebook study category of “selfie.” And unfortunately, her recent shenanigans seem to further curb her into the world of a selfie -- she kept social media around because it still is an ingrained part of her identity. In our society today we are worshippers of power -- which can be acquired in many ways. Often money is though to buy power, but money is a byproduct of other power sources - such as internet popularity. Nahon et al. (2011) speak of the power-law distribution, where top-bloggers capture most of the attention...and thus have most of the influence on trends and even major media and political figures. I see this lovely Essena O’Neil as a kind soul who probably really does think that her social media usage and posts have gotten out of control - yet she also does not want to lose her social power. So though she may think of social media as “fake” - it is clearly a vital source to her self-esteem and social power. If she really truly felt that it was fake and detrimental...she probably wouldn’t use it anymore. Indeed, she would go so far as to cast her bedazzled iphone into the beautiful Australian reef and throw another shrimp on the barbie to celebrate.
cool insights from your study with Janice and Dr. Robinson.
DeleteOkay, let’s talk about it. I most people would look at the above and say that Facebook causes one’s self esteeme to go down. I look at myself (a heavy facebook user) and try to think if it’s caused my self esteeme to decrease. Is my self essteme low? Yes, we can say that. But is it because of Facebook? Using myself as an example, I’d say because I have low self-essteme I rather prefer using Facebook where my message is controlled rather than subject myself to the opinions of others. In going outside, there are too many elements outside of my control. On a social media however, I can adjust exactly what everyone sees about me. This might also contribute to my being a serious introvert and therefore my complete discomfort with non-mediated social environments. However, I’m familiar with a study that Janice and Erica helped to conduct last year in which different motivations for using Facebook were identified. I may fall under the category of a “self-esteem builder” but I don’t think that category must apply to all users.
ReplyDeleteI think a better way to determine the effectiveness of Facebook is charting someone’s self-esteem changes after an increase in Facebook usage. Would an increase in usage correlate to an increase narcissism? Or are we just charting useage at the time of the self-evaluation.
I also have to say that I do take pride in how I use my social media sites. Not just as a way for me to collect likes- but as a tool. It’s a little like how a comedian will practice jokes off stage. If you’re an expert at using social media, then your pride is your ability to get likes, comments, and shares. Generating activity online I think is a skill more people should have. Not just in inflammatory ways but also for good causes. But even for entertainment purposes, I don’t think that having success is such a terribly narcissistic thing.
ReplyDeleteNow for the hypocrite Essena O’Neil.
One of my greatest pet-peeves is seeing people put up memes or making YouTube videos claiming the virtues of putting down the phone and connecting with real people. If that is your message, you’d be supporting your own message if you tried to spread it in the real world. But what they’re saying by using that medium (The medium is the message after all) is that messages and meanings are best spread virally. That real effect and change can happen through such social media sites. This is even more confusing considering the actual message they are fighting against is the use of the social media. Even if it’s claiming that you shouldn’t be using it to excess- what other methods have you people tried to get this word out? This may sound like I’m trying to defend social media as a great motivator. Quite the contrary, I just taught a lesson about “slacktivism” and how overblown the success rate of social media can be. I’m just saying if they believed in their own message they could find ways to support the act of putting down screens in favor of faces in ways that don’t involve adding to the over abundance of media.
I do believe in what Essena is saying- that Social Media is not real life and the internet does NOT define this generation. People do. Those who forfeit their morality, their priorities, and their time to increasing technologies are just as guilty for the consequences that occur as those that let the same things happen without the use of computers. For example, cyber bullying is still bullying. Racist comments on YouTube are still racist even if everyone doesn’t take it seriously because it’s online (and it probably shouldn’t be taken seriously- if you’re such a coward you don’t deserve that kind of respect anyway). And your shortened attention span to 140 characters or spending more time with your phone than your kids will 100% be upon the head of those that life.
Of course, I’m not exonerating myself. I’m every bit at fault for these kinds of things as anyone. But the difference is I try to recognize it for what it is: My choices. My priorities. I define who I am- not technology. Social MEDIA is like all the things we study- a way to mediate a message. It’s important to either not to let the two confused (like people using FB for their own ego) or to recognize your medium is the message (like Essena is doing to get her message out).
We currently live in society where we live in 2 realities. We have our social media life and our real life, and our social media profiles have essentially become an extension of ourselves. We are human and we like to be heard. Social media provides that platform but it’s become a place where people need “likes” to feel validated and relevant; the amount of “likes” and the number of followers determine their self-worth. People with low self-esteems may feel the need to put more out there in terms of pictures and personal information like relationship statuses to boost their self-worth and show others that their relationship is great (validation). Have you ever heard the phrase, “It’s not official until it’s Facebook official”? Well it feels like it’s true. In contrast, narcissistic people use social media for attention-seeking purposes by posting about they’re physical appearance, all the things they have, and all they’re accomplishments. I personally know a few people who would fall into one of these categories.
ReplyDeleteNow with using social media to campaign against “fakeness”, only time will tell if she can make it work. We never really want to share the bad things, which are very real things, about our lives. With social media, we see what others want us to see and most of the time they’re staged things or they’re 5 minutes of their entire day. It’s not complete. I follow many LDS bloggers on social media who I’m relatively close in age with and they’ve also expressed the desire to start campaigning against the “fakeness” on social media. All of them have a lot of followers and when they do post about their “real life”, they gotten positive feedback.
This blog post couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. My friends and I just had an in depth conversation about the effects of social media, all spurred from Essena’s recent public announcement. It’s interesting…they all sided with her. “Social media is deceiving, and misleading. Social media is fake, and limits our ability to interact in the real world; that social media has become our world, etc…” Sadly, a part of these statements are true for too many. But I couldn’t help but disagree with some of their initial statements. I strongly feel (and always have) that social media is a good thing. The medium itself can be whatever we want it to be. It is simply the platform by which we output, and decipher information. The abuse of social media is what spur haters to accuse the platform, instead of its users. Such factors that would fuel these accusations would be the amount of time spent on social media, the authenticity of what we put out, comparing ourselves to others, etc. Fascinatingly enough, the very next day, I found this post by Instagram-er, Hailey Devine:
ReplyDelete“‘Social media is whatever the user desires it to be. Allowing yourself to become pressured into a false life that you’re uncomfortable with is the result of your own actions and intent.’ –I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Engaging in social media is not a sin, and doesn’t mean you live a ‘non-authentic’ life. We all love pretty pictures…but the moment your life starts to revolve around those ‘pretty pictures’ THAT is where the problem begins. No [one] is defined by amounts of followers or likes, especially something as big as your happiness and confidence. The way you use social media is completely up to YOU. Control your time. Be genuine. Tailor your space in a way that it can serve you. Instead of leaving feeling yucky, make it a space you leave feeling uplifted and inspired. It really can be something awesome, and it’s a pretty cool realization that only YOU have power over the way you use it.”
While Essena’s announcement to renounce her activity on social media was noble and bold, the irony still stands that to convince her viewers of the pitfalls of social media, she is using that very medium. I do praise her for alerting herself to the narcissistic attitudes of today’s world at such a young age (I think she’s something like 19), but that just happens to be her personal experience of how she allowed social media to take advantage of her. It’s a good example of what not to do, but to boycott it completely is a personal choice each of us must make based on our personal experiences, and our own understanding of what we can handle.
I’m excited to talk about social media in class tomorrow, it’s a topic I’ve recently become interested in and am considering doing my thesis on pathological social media use (but don’t ask me too many in depth questions about it, I still don’t know anything ). I think as with most things related to media, it can be both positive and negative depending on how much and in what way it is used. If social media is used too frequently (perhaps pathologically), it can lead to serious problems (like increased relational aggression or increased depression), but only if it is used in the wrong way. A casual social media user who checks their account once or twice a day is probably not in danger of these serious problems. In regards to low self-esteem, and Facebook activity, I could see how these two could be related. If a person low in self-esteem posted a picture to social media, they might be nervous to see if their friends and acquaintances were liking their picture. In this sense, they’d be checking social media many times per day to make sure their post was popular. High social media users may also frequently be on social media to make sure they aren’t tagged in any bad pictures, or to make sure they didn’t miss an invite to an important party. In these ways, I could see social media becoming super important to a person with low self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteI think the story about the Australian model is ridiculous. I don’t think the way to fight “fakeness” on social media is to spread her message through social media. This fakeness in social media problem is definitely something to consider, as people rarely post awful pictures of themselves or bad experiences that happened to them on social media. People are going to post pictures they look good in, doing something fun, or being with friends. If all social media viewers ever see is the perfect life portrayed on social media, they might think that their friends are all perfect and happy. Fighting the “fakeness” of social media through social media probably is not effective. If you want to fight fakeness on social media, stop looking at and posting on social media so much and just live life like a normal person! I think social media is what we make of it, if a person decides that it’s real life, it will become real life for them. If they decide it’s not real life but a fun way to pass time when bored for a few minutes a day, that’s all social media will be.
With the growth of technology, our behaviors change and adapt to the new, modified world. The need for instant gratification, supported by modern technology, is stronger than before. We want to get things done easier, faster and more efficiently. This concept applies to all aspects of our lives, but can be noticed especially in the social part. When we do not feel satisfied with the way our social life looks like, today’s world gives us many opportunities in a form of social media platforms to just fake it and make ourselves feel better. Like they say, “fake it til you make it.“ We compare our lives to the lives of people sometimes we do not even know and we want to match it or even top that. We always want to have more likes, more friends, and more comments on the content of our social media accounts. It only drives our need for instant gratification more and more. Because of that, I can see how people with lower self-esteem would spend more time on Facebook. They might feel that since they are not able to stay active in social life in reality, because they are not confident enough to engage with people, they turn to social media where they can control every aspect of the situation. I mean, right now we reached a point in the society where we can buy Instagram followers and pay for likes. However, I can also see how social media can be the cause of low self-esteem. Someone who is content with her/his life and stays active on social media, not getting enough (in their mind) likes/followers/comments and on top of that, comparing that with other people’s social media accounts, who might or might not post similar content, can cause a lower self-esteem. Either way, sometimes people become fixated on the amount of likes, followers, and comments and obsess about having more of them than others so later on they can brag about it to their friends or family or even people they barely know exposing their narcissism.
ReplyDeleteAs for Essena O’Neill, it is quite obvious to me she did it to just gain a bigger audience. I mean, trying to show people how everything on social media is staged, faked, and inauthentic by using social media is quite ironic. So she switched from advertising clothes and other things that she got paid for to promoting veganism. How do we know that this is not another thing she is getting paid for? On top of that, the video, released by two YouTubers, talking about how her decision about leaving social media was just a publicity stunt on O’Neill’s side brings some doubts about the sincerity of her actions. Obviously, she has the unfulfilled need for constant validation no matter the purpose of her social media accounts. I think the anti-social media message she is delivering has been created for the same reasons she created her original account: for instant gratification so she can feel better about herself and her life.
I think individuals who have low self-esteem spend a great amount of time on Facebook because they see all the positive things being posted from others. It makes them think that other people’s lives are better than theirs. They start comparing their lives to the lives they see on Facebook, where most people put out the highlights of their life instead of the lows in their life. I mean, who wants to see people post sad things all the time? Pretty much nobody. And when people constantly post sad things on Facebook all the time, I feel like a lot of people scroll right past them, at least I do.
ReplyDeleteAlthough many of the youth today don’t really use Facebook as much as they use Instagram, but I think there are a lot of similarities between both social media platforms. On Instagram, people post pictures of the things they do, the places they go, the people they’re with, etc. There is also a link where you can share the picture on Instagram as well as Facebook. I feel that now, adolescents’ lives and popularity among peers relies a great deal on social media and how many “likes” they get and how many followers they have.
There is also the acronym FOMO, which means “fear of missing out.” I’ve realized that so many people do experience that when they see people they know, or even friends, post a picture or something about their day, and these viewers weren’t able to experience it as well. For me growing up, my FOMO was when my peers talked about their weekend. They hung out a lot and went to movies whereas I was pretty much dancing and going to rehearsal Friday nights and Saturdays. My friends stopped inviting me to social activities because my evenings and weekends were busy due to dance. I struggled in high school because I felt like I was missing out every time I went to dance. I wanted to dance, but I also wanted a social life.
The funny thing about the Australian model is that I don’t think a lot of people knew about her until the media took notice. Honestly, I think that taking a stand and letting people (especially girls) know about the “fakeness” behind her posts on social media was huge. When I first saw the post, I thought it was about her and all this photoshop she used. It made me think of the Disney channel star Zendaya when she released untouched photographs of her in a magazine on Instagram. She showed comparisons to the touched-up photo and the untouched photo. Essena O’Neil, on the other hand, approached a different light to social media. She wanted to show that behind all of her cute pictures was not cute at all and how much she struggled with herself. I think that it is good to let people, who may look up to her, know that having all the followers and likes doesn’t make them a better person.
I believe a positive association exists between low self-esteem and Facebook use because it may be that those who are insecure with themselves can more easily interact with others in a setting other than face-to-face. For instance, someone with low self-esteem may feel nervous or inadequate in peer socialization experiences at school, home, or during other activities. However, online, the individual who is normally anxious is enabled to take the time necessary to come across as composed, confident, and outgoing during cyber interactions. Thus, it may be that social media allows individuals to present themselves in unrealistic ways that appear more desirable to peers.
ReplyDeleteI would not necessarily assume it was “ironic” that O’Neil quit social media and then came back a few days later and used her previous accounts as a campaign against the fakeness of social media. It could be that after careful consideration, she recognized the power she had to inform others and help them to avoid the same issues and insecurities she dealt with in her own experience. I think there will be two possible effects to her recent actions: (1) her campaign will result in the reduction of social media use, or at least a decrease in the extent to which social media users subscribe and internalize the images and messages they are exposed to; or, (2) social media users will learn of the immense power of social media use through O’Neil’s example and will invest in social media use to a greater extent. Though both of these results will likely occur to varying degrees, it is possible that “option 2” will occur more often—the reason being that the message that you have to be on social media to know what is happening in the world is perpetuated in this instance.
Tried to post this a few hours ago. I’m having problems. Hope this isn’t posted 18,000 times already…
ReplyDeleteUsing social media to attack social media does seem ironic. However, I do think it can be used to attach social norms that are reinforced by social media. My favorite account I’ve seen doing this is an Instagram account called “Socality Barbie” that mocks Instagram and the hipsters who spend time and energy engineering “authentic” Instagram posts. Here’s the account: https://instagram.com/socalitybarbie/
The quote from Mehdizadeh was really interesting. One thing I kept wondering was: does logging into Facebook more often lower an individual’s self-esteem? Or are people with lower self-esteems more drawn to Facebook and other like media systems? I think it may be a little bit of both.
By applying uses and gratifications, we can assume that people use Facebook for many reasons. One such reason could be that it helps people reduce their uncertainty about what is or isn’t socially acceptable. While it may help reduce some uncertainty, the environment is always changing. Social media trends change quickly. While using Facebook to reduce uncertainty about social norms, it could actually create more anxiety due to the constant change.
Facebook also creates the appearance of allowing individuals to see the very personal sides of other people. It gives the appearance of allowing someone to know what the others are thinking. I think that people who have low self-esteem would be drawn to this. They might think they are getting an inside view into how others think and act. It might help them understand the social norms around them.
A cultivation application to the internet is an interesting concept since opinions on the internet are so diverse. However, the internet may cultivate some underlying themes: appearances are most important and social reinforcement shows the value of certain messages.