Social media is a modern boogieman, blamed
for the downfall of community and propriety
and our own sanity.
Allow me to present you with some science.
In psychology and sociology, there’s been
a bunch of discussion about how social networks
like Facebook can contribute to what’s called
the fear of missing out.
It’s the anxiety many of us have – some
more acutely than others – that we’re
not living our best lives compared with our
peers.
That we could be doing more things, connecting
with more people, hugging more kittens, having
more fun.
And social networking sites are linked to
an increased fear of missing out: We now have
solid digital evidence when our friends don’t
invite us to a dinner, or when they have a
lovely moment (say, on a vacation or in a
relationship) that we’ve never had.
But how do we handle that anxiety, and what
does it mean for our overall self-esteem?
A new study out of Nottingham Trent University,
published in the journal “Computers in Human
Behavior”, shows a cluster of links between
increased use of social media and lower self-esteem,
all mediated through fear of missing out and
a previously unresearched factor: online vulnerability.
That’s our exposure to negative feedback
online, like critical or hurtful comments,
harassment, and stalking.
489 participants, ages 13 to 77, completed
an online survey about themselves and their
Facebook habits, including their social network
size and their willingness to share personal
and emotional information.
There were also questions to determine their
online vulnerability and to evaluate their
self-esteem.
The researchers crunched the numbers, and
they found that when the participants experienced
a fear of missing out due to Facebook, it
drove some of them to share and participate
more on Facebook – likely in an attempt
to receive outside validation and boost their
self-esteem back up.
But that also opened them to experiencing
more negativity – which means their self-esteem
took another hit – which drove them to share
and participate more – and so on.
The researchers described it as a sort of
self-imposed or self-regulated limbo.
It’s important to note that the participants
skewed young – over half were between the
ages of 13 and 17.
And the adults were recruited via online advertisements,
and 489 people isn’t the biggest sample size.
So it’s possible that the participants aren’t
a true sample of the overall population.
Also important: This study certainly doesn’t
say that ALL users of Facebook and other social
networking sites experience negative psychological
effects.
Some research has actually found benefits
to increased social media use in lots of populations,
including increased social support and self-esteem
– though this study did not find a direct
link there.
What this study is saying is that when a person
does get anxious because of what they see
on social media and then attempts to fix their
anxiety with more social media,
that can be damaging.
Which, when you put it that way, sounds sort
of “duh”.
But one of the great things about science
is when it finds ways to bring proof to what
sounds obvious – because in some other cases,
attempting to find that evidence proves the
obvious wrong.
And these results imply some excellent advice:
If you’re bummed by the Internet, seek out
better times offline instead of diving deeper.
What do you think about all this?
Get in touch and let us know.
And for more stories like this, check out
our podcast – we’ve got one of those – or
head over to our home planet: now.howstuffworks.com.
