Essay Sample on Social Comparison on Facebook: Effects and Impact

Introduction

Liu, Li, Carcioppolo, and North (2016) defined social comparison as the action of comparing oneself with another to understand themselves better. On Facebook, much like other social network sites (SNSs), people generally make daily comparisons with their friends, acquaintances, or sometimes strangers to gain approval. These comparisons can often have a negative impact on oneself if the individuals they compare themselves with lead better lives or appear superior in some form. Rosenthal-von der Putten et al. (2019) posed that the structure of the SNSs create a conducive environment for these comparisons to thrive through the numerical accumulation of "likes" from friends. Various SNSs can use another term for the "Likes," but they all some online social currency that should somewhat validate them in terms of their social status or appearance.

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Social networks are barely over a decade old. However, they have grown to become an influential aspect of people's lives. Rosenthal-von der Putten et al. (2019) noted that millions of people interact with each other on Facebook daily. The sheer number of people online coupled with their posts and pictures, can alter users' worldview. The researchers claim that these views are predominantly negative and can cause depression and lead one to believe that their lives are of a much lower quality than their online counterparts. Liu, Li, Carcioppolo, and North (2016) attributed this problem to a heightened sense of self-reflection, which would not occur without the presence of social networks.

Social Comparison Through Social Media

According to the social comparison theory, social networks such as Facebook create the impression that the majority of people online lead better lives than the individual user. De Vries and Kuhne (2015) argued from the standpoint of one's self-perception at the point of logging in, whose degree rises when they start using Facebook. Happier and less happy people have incredibly different ways of processing the information they access online. However, irrespective of where the user falls on this spectrum, they tend to have a negative self-perception with increased usage, a circumstance that they derive from the site (De Vries & Kuhne, 2015). Liu et al. (2016) held a slightly different interpretation of the issue. They argue that users whose friends on, say, Facebook, are seen to be inferior will influence positive feelings while those they think of as superior will influence negative sentiments. The former circumstance results from a downward social comparison while the latter is termed as upward social comparison.

It suffices to note that Liu et al. (2016) noted that these comparisons to which people subject themselves do not occur on social media alone. In contrast, offline interactions are also culpable. The authors allude to television programs, which often encourage people to overestimate other people wealth and allow upward social comparisons. Consequently, they become less satisfied with their own lives. People's self-esteem determines the impact of social media posts on people. Liu et al. (2016) argued that close friends impacted people's self-perceptions differently compared to distant friends. In the event that people within one's close circle are doing better than oneself, their self-esteem improves. Distant friends make one significantly less happy with themselves if they are wealthier, healthier, or at least create the impression that they are so. De Vries and Kuhne (2015) suggested that these comparisons are less prevalent among happier people than it was among unhappy individuals, where the social correlation was almost principally negative.

Social Comparison Theories

According to Gerber, Wheeler, and Suls (2018), social comparison is the process through which one gathers information about other people concerning oneself. The comparer, in this case, seeks to identify the differences and similarities from the comparison target, which results in a change of behavior and self-evaluation. The downward comparison theory is one of the social comparison theoretical perspectives, which is established on the occasion that one's self-esteem is threatened. Downward comparison is aimed at restoring individual self-esteem. Downward social comparisons are associated with better self-evaluations (Gerber et al., 2018). The upward social comparison, in contrast, involves assimilating one's self-evaluation concerning those that are better off in society. Majority of people compare themselves with those that are better than them, which is associated with elevating one's self-worth. Upward social comparison results in the high self-esteem of the subject and distinction from the target. Target immediacy is attributed to self-evaluation in which comparison is carried out using the most immediate target. This means that people tend to compare themselves with those that are close to their social circle with the limited effect being caused by those that are distant. Target immediacy has proved to have a more significant impact on an individual self-evaluation compared to remote comparisons (Gerber et al., 2018). In most cases, the downward comparison is associated with improved self-esteem and a more superior self-image. This means that people increase their self-evaluation after a downward comparison and in contrast decreases their self-evaluation when after encountering upward comparison. This means that in upward comparison people compare themselves with those that are better than them, and in downward comparison, people tend to seek comparison from those that are less proficient than they are (Gerber et al., 2018). Both theories play an instrumental role in understanding the approach of social comparison and potential results.

References

De Vries, D. A., & Kuhne, R. (2015). Facebook and self-perception: Individual susceptibility to negative social comparison on Facebook. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 217-221. Retrieved from doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.029

Gerber, J. P., Wheeler, L., & Suls, J. (2018). A social comparison theory meta-analysis 60+ years on. Psychological bulletin, 144(2), 177. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/gerberwheelersulsmeta_analysis.pdf

Liu, J., Li, C., Carcioppolo, N., & North, M. (2016). Do our Facebook friends make us feel worse? A study of social comparison and emotion. Human Communication Research, 42(4), 619-640. Retrieved from doi:10.1111/hcre.12090

Rosenthal-von der Putten, A. M., Hastall, M. R., Kocher, S., Meske, C., Heinrich, T., Labrenz, F., & Ocklenburg, S. (2019). "Likes" as social rewards: Their role in online social comparison and decisions to like other People's selfies. Computers in Human Behavior, 92, 76-86. Retrieved from doi:10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.017