Instagram a planned way can be indicative

Instagram being a fairly new (2010) form ofsocial media has very few studies, or limited studies done.

With regard to selfesteem however, there seems to be substantial work done, all pointing innegative directions. A study by Anna Hill and Lamaja Denman in2012, titled ‘ Adolescent Self Esteem and Instagram: An Examination of PostingBehaviors’, explored how a specific social media site- here Instagram, mayaffect adolescent girls and their self esteem. Social media, with the rise intechnology, has changed the very manner in which young people interact with itand each other.

Instagram as a platform is used often to share pictures thatthe user takes to depict only certain, desirable aspects of their life, and isoften used to recreate their desired self image. Portrayal of self in a plannedway can be indicative of suffering self esteem, especially based on the “ follow”” like” and “ comment” feedback features that the platform allows, and this cancause unprecedented declines in terms of mental health and rise in mentalillness. The hypothesis of the study was that thegirls with the lowest self esteem would post the most provocative pictures. Thishypothesis is based on how people can choose to “ follow” certain users, maketheir accounts “ public” or “ private” and thereby choose the influences that mayregulate how young women view themselves and how they wish others to view them.

The researchers issued a self-esteem questionnaire to a group, and followedclosely the Instagram profiles of the group of adolescent girls (N= 14), lookingto find correlations. Close examination was done on the accounts of type ofphotographs found, frequency of sharing pictures, usage of “ filters” to alterthe picture and correlated thus to the self-reported self –esteem scores. Itwas so found that the participants with highest self esteem scores tended topost most unflattering, humorous and “ goofy” pictures. The average self-esteemparticipants posted an increasing amount of filtered and provocative, revealingpictures, whilst the ones showing lowest self esteem had open accounts mostoften- alongside most provocative and filtered or edited pictures- proving thestudy’s hypothesis. As social media becomes an almost invariable part of mostadolescents and early adults’ life in urban and progressive lifestyles, it hasan increasingly ill effect on the self esteem and further- self portrayal andself confidence of adolescents as it creates its own flawed ideals of beauty andstandards of what is considered “ attractive”. The study could have done withincluding more factors than just number of provocative pictures to gaugecorrelation with self esteem, and perhaps could extend itself to be non gender specific. A study ‘ THE EFFECT OF INSTAGRAM ONSELF-ESTEEM AND LIFE SATISFACTION’ by Nicole Annette Dion, 2016 was conductedas a quasi experiment that examined the effects of Instagram, on self-esteemand life satisfaction. Specifically the study looked at the effects of followingcelebrities on Instagram in relation  Festingers’ social comparison theory that explainshow individuals compare themselves to others to evaluate their own opinions andabilities in order to reduce any uncertainty in these areas and to learn how todefine the self.

Social comparison can be a way of self-enhancement by downwardsocial comparisons, by means of looking to another individual or group thatthey consider to be worse off than them in order to feel better aboutthemselves, or have a negative impact on an individual’s self-report by meansof upward comparisons, when comparing themselves with others who are better offor superior. Such negative social comparisons are detrimental to theperceptions about the self. Traditionally-aged college females (N = 51)were assigned to either the control group where they were asked to useInstagram as they normally would, or the experimental group where they wereasked to follow 15 specific celebrities for 4-6 weeks. Participants were givena pretest and posttest which included a self-esteem (Rosenberg Self EsteemScale- Revised Positive Version, 2003) and a life satisfaction survey (RevisedWork and Nonwork Life Satisfaction Scales, 2013).

There were no statisticallysignificant differences found between the experimental group and the controlgroup, nor between the pre-test and post-test scores. However, a subgroup ofparticipants that initially followed a minimal amount of celebrities before theexperiment showed a decline in their life satisfaction at post-test whichapproached statistical significance, which resulted in the conclusion thatusage of Instagram can decrease self esteem and life satisfaction in collegeaged females depending on who they follow. This study thus successfully foundthe answers it sought in relation to self esteem and Instagram usage, but itlack of a control group-natural settings and a less gendered approach wouldyield more conclusive evidence.             A study survey ‘ Friend Networking Sites andTheir Relationship to Adolescents’ Well-Being and Social Self-Esteem'(Valkenberget al, 2006) among 881 (ages 10-19 years) adolescents on a Dutch friendnetworking site showed interesting results on feedback and self-esteem.

It isknown that adolescents often engage in what has been referred to as “ imaginativeaudience behaviour” where they tend to overestimate the extent to which othersare watching and evaluating and as a result can be extremely preoccupied withhow they appear in eyes of others. Interpersonal feedback and publicevaluations are publicly available on all members of friend networking sites, likely to affect the development of adolescents’ social self esteem, that istheir evaluation of their self worth or satisfaction. Conducted in Netherlands, the study was based in networking site CU2 (“ See You Too) used by 415, 000profiles- 45% boys and 55% girls.

Upon accessing their profile, members of thesite received a pop-up screen with an invitation to participate in an onlinesurvey that assured participation was voluntary, and that their responses wouldbe anonymous. Using structuralequation modeling, measureslike use of site, frequency of reactions to profiles, the tone of reactions to profiles, relationships established online, andsocial self esteem were analysed. It was found that the frequency with which adolescents used the site had an indirect effect on their socialself-esteem and well-being.  The use of the friend networking sitestimulated the number of relationships formed on the site, the frequency withwhich adolescents received feedback on their profiles, and the tone- positiveor negative, of this feedback. Positive feedback on the profiles enhancedadolescents’ social self-esteemand well-being, whereas negative feedback decreased their self-esteem and well-being- reliant solely on the tone ofthe feedback. For 78% adolescents, positive feedback was predominant, but forthe smaller 7% adolescents who received a majority of negative feedback ontheir profiles, the use of the site resulted in aversive and deeply negativeeffects on self esteem. The study specified also the necessary spotfor all communication researchers and educators alike to look into the global phenomenonof social networking sites as it has deeply psychological effects on its users.