by Kat Cole
Even though the press has recently been rife with articles detailing how large stints on Facebook can cause users depression, today I saw several news stories explaining how the social network could boost self esteem. This news comes in the wake of a new research article by Jeffery Hancock (Cornell University Professor of Communication) entitled ‘Mirror, Mirror on my Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposure to Facebook on self esteem’, published in the peer-reviewed Cyber-psychology, Behaviour and Social Networking journal just a week ago (February 24th).
I wouldn’t say that any of Hancock’s findings are particularly groundbreaking but nevertheless, here are the two reasons he gave to reach the conclusion that Facebook can make us feel good about ourselves:
- Facebook users can select the most flattering images of themselves to use for their default profile image. Users can also delete any photos which portray their aesthetics in a bad light. Flattering portraits tend to receive positive feedback from Facebook friends also which can also increase self esteem levels.
- Users of the site can also vet and edit the information about themselves and their lives they reveal to their “friends” via their profile page. They have the ability to present themselves however they choose and therefore hide anything they would really rather people didn’t know about them.
As if these points were not obvious enough, the professor also decided to conduct an experiment to confirm the theorem. Volunteers were split into two groups. One group was asked to spend half an hour on Facebook updating their profiles and flicking through the photos in which they were currently tagged. The other group were asked to sit in front of a mirror for the same duration.
Both groups were then asked to fill in a sheet of questions related to their self esteem. As expected, those who were sat staring at themselves for the 30 minutes had a far lower opinion of themselves than those who were instructed to surf Facebook.
I happened to notice these points ages ago but in relation to MySpace – the website which used to wear the social networking crown. You too must remember the “MySpace angle” (photographs taken from a flattering angle from above, as opposed to snapping face on) and Photoshop filters used by many on the website but notably favoured by the popular “emo” subculture.
Facebook is a hip buzzword of current times and this means that any study involving the platform is sure to be picked up by the press…even if the contained information is hardly news worthy and contradicts the stories published by the very same news establishments just days before.
Kat Cole is a graphic designer by day and creates packaging for various items including kettles, vacuum cleaners, security labels and security cameras. Kat is an avid gig goer and blog writer in her spare time.