Social media and self-esteem

Abstract

The relationship between social media and self-esteem is complex, as studies tend to find a mixed pattern of relationships and meta-analyses tend to find small, albeit significant, magnitudes of statistical effects. One explanation is that social media use does not affect self-esteem for the majority of users, while small minorities experience either positive or negative effects, as evidenced by recent research calculating person-specific within-person effects. This suggests that the true relationship between social media use and self-esteem is person-specific and based on individual susceptibilities and uses. In recognition of these advancements, we review recent empirical studies considering differential uses and moderating variables in the social media-self-esteem relationship, and conclude by discussing opportunities for future social media effects research.

Keywords: Self-esteem; Self-reflection; Social comparison; Social feedback; Social media.