In its broader context, Social media includes; web based technologies like YouTube (social video

sharing service), test messaging, blogs, microblogs such as Twitter, social networking services (e.g.
Facebook, MySpace,WhatsApp).
Point: The relationship between Social media and self comparison/ self criticism
General term
Humans are thought to possess a fundamental drive to compare themselves with others.Social comparison
theory , first proposed in 1954 by psychologist Leon Festinger, stated that individuals determine their own
social and personal worth based on how they measure up against others. Social comparison is an
instrumental piece in explaining how the Social media may influence people’s perceptions of themselves.
Social media is like kerosene poured on the flame of social comparison, dramatically increasing the
information about people that we're exposed to and forcing our minds to assess.

What to compare
Teenagers are constantly evaluating themselves and others across a variety of domains, such as
appearance, attractiveness, wealth, intelligence, and success.The longer amount of time users spends on
Facebook, the more time they have to observe and compare to others, “which caused users to begin to feel
poorly about themselves, their self-worth, and their self-image” (Schufreider, 2015)
Who to compare
Blease (2015) asserts that because there is so much social competition on Facebook, individuals are being
exposed to a variety of others who appear successful on Social media “evinced by the content of profile
images, galleries, and status updates” .They compare themselves to carefully curated images of their
peers. They compare themselves to celebrities or others who have achieved at unusually high levels. As a
result, teens feel that their own accomplishments aren’t enough.
Classification
Research often distinguishes between upwards and downwards comparisons. Upward social comparison
occurs when comparing oneself with superior others who have positive characteristics, whereas
downward social comparison occurs when comparing oneself with inferior others who have negative
characteristics (Wills,1981; Wood, 1989).
The effects of upward and downward comparisons depend on how we process the information. Self-
improvement occurs when an upward comparison inspires us to try harder (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997).
Self-enhancement can take place when we note our similarities to someone superior or play up our
differences with someone inferior .And self identity is corroded when we compare upward only to note
differences that feel insurmountable or dwell on commonalities with someone we disdain.
The effect:
 Negative outcome :
Social media has particular characteristics that may make users susceptible to negative consequences.
Indeed, Social media provide the perfect platform for meticulous self-presentation. Users can selectively
allow content onto their profiles, post pictures, and describe themselves in ways that best represent their
ideal self-views (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). For example, Facebook is an attractive platform for self-
presentation,because users can take their time to strategically construct online personas that emphasize
their most desirable traits (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011), whereas face-to-face interactions do not allow for
the same degree of contemplation or flexibility (Ellison, Heino,& Gibbs, 2006). Teens spend some
amount of time on social networking sites updating their profiles and posting, as well as they spend the
vast majority of their social media time looking at peers’ profiles and photos. Therefore, social media
trigger constant and detrimental social comparisons .

In support of the general idea that profiles on social media are projecting positive rather than negative)
images, Chou and Edge (2012) found that frequent Facebook users believe that other users are happier
and more successful than themselves, especially when they do not know the other users well offline.
People are most likely to share peak experiences and flattering news about themselves—what University
of Houston psychologist Mai-Ly Nguyen Steers calls "everyone else's highlights reel"—and tech
companies, furthermore, use algorithms to prioritize that very information in social media feeds. And
because of the tendency to post only a carefully edited, cropped, and filtered account of our lives,
Mussweiler says, "Facebook profiles paint very rosy pictures. If you still interacted with those people
from high school, you would know about both the bright and dark sides." . In a study by Kross (2013), It
was also discovered that there is a link between more Facebook usage and a decline in life satisfaction. a
lot of people feel like they aren’t making progress and wish their life was like someone else’s, based
solely on what they see on Social media. ‘’I’ve been there — looking with envy at all of the
accomplishments and accolades your social circle is racking up while you feel like you’re standing still.’’
Masekela Mandela (2018).The narrow, distorted slice of reality that is displayed on Social media is
almost perfectly constructed to make viewers feel deficient and discouraged.
In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control issued some sobering statistics about student anxiety and
depression. Teens are more lonely, anxious and depressed than ever. Social media, says John Richter,
director of Public Policy at the Mental Health Association, is exacerbating this trend. “Researchers are
finding that when someone develops depression and withdraws from peers, they see other people on
Social media smiling and at parties with friends. It magnifies their sense of isolation,” says Richter
Namely, social media contain quantitative and qualitative information about the person’s social network,
such as the number of people in the network and the amount of engagement the person has with network
members. For example, a person who has an active social network (e.g., receives numerous comments,
replies, and virtual “likes” or approval of their content) may be an upward comparison target in terms of
popularity, sociability, or perceived social capital (Kim & Lee, 2011; Vitak & Ellison, 2013)
The mental health of those prone to negative comparison can be seriously compromised as a result.
Technology-based social comparison is associated with depressive symptoms among teenagers."When
we're reliant on others for our sense of self, only feeling good if we get positive feedback or markers of
status, we're at risk for depression," says Mitch Prinstein, a psychologist at the University of North
Carolina and the author of Popular: The Power of Likeability in a Status-Obsessed World. Constant self-
evaluation, competition with other users, and incorrectly perceiving other users’ lives on social media
invoke feelings of jealousy , which can lower self-esteem (Pantic, 2014).

 Positive outcome :
With regard to social media environments, research has so far overwhelmingly focused on ‘‘negative’’
upward comparisons.Unsurprisingly then, studies on social media have predominantly found negative
effects of comparisons on wellbeing such as increased depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem.
In contrast, a recent survey found comparisons on Facebook motivated by self-improvement to be
associated with higher positive affect among individuals with high self-esteem.In general, upward
comparisons have been found to elicit positive motivational outcomes such as inspiration. "If others are
better in a valued dimension, it could be inspiration for you to work on that thing." Fiske likes to refer to
the Dutch term for benign envy, benijden, which means the motivation one reaps from another person's
impressive example.
The inspiration you feel about someone else's achievements can rev up the motivation to improve your
own life. The recognition that your abilities are a notch above someone else's can deliver a boost to your
self-esteem.( Rebecca Webber, Psychology Today , 2017).Together, this literature points to an important
gap : social comparisons on Social media may also have positive motivational outcomes towards
teenagers.