How Social Media Affects Our Self-esteem
Today we share our life moments on the internet daily. We share photos, videos and thoughts on social media, hoping that we can collect some “likes”. However, the question is why are we doing this.
Do we want the approval of people we hardly ever see, or do we want our lives to feel and come across as exciting? In any case, the truth is that social media influences our self-confidence in all kinds of ways.
It doesn’t just depend on how many responses we get to our posts. Even though we may not be aware of it, there are several factors involved. We must keep these in mind so that we can avoid self-confidence problems caused by new technologies.
How it affects our self-confidence
Many people follow so-called influencers , brands or magazines on social media. Their posts often have more to do with commercials than the usual, everyday posts people share. In fact, the purpose of these posts is often to advertise a specific product.
So we constantly see unrealistic images on our phones of who we should be or how we should live. These images show us unrealistic beauty ideals and lifestyle-related stereotypes. This can lead to a lot of discomfort and even affect our self-confidence.
When we see that our reality doesn’t match what we see on social media – or what our reality “should look” – it results in internal conflict.
When we see the posts in question, we set unrealistic and difficult goals for ourselves. We get unachievable dreams. Ultimately, if we don’t get what we want, this will affect our confidence.
The lifestyles seen on the internet are hard to achieve for “normal” people. For example, we ourselves do not have enough money to travel as much as they do, to eat in the restaurants where they eat or to live in the kind of houses they live in.
However, that does not necessarily mean that our lives are inherently worse than theirs. It’s simply different.
Social media and our self-image
Social media doesn’t just affect the goals we set for ourselves. In fact, that’s not even where they exert the greatest influence. Social networks influence our self-image the most. Take, for example, the image that social media paints of women. In general, we get to see extremely thin women.
In general, the self-image that people want is largely similar to what the influencers, brands and other major social media users show us. These posts affect our confidence all the more the more time we spend on social media.
Nevertheless, women are not the only ones who suffer from this. In addition to all of the above, a 2007 study by Aparicio Martínez et al. found that men want to look like the muscular figures we see on social media.
However, the difference between the two genders is that men are less concerned with pursuing this standard of beauty.
Of course, we have to keep in mind that this doesn’t happen to everyone. For example, a lot of self-confidence can also serve as a protective barrier against everything we just talked about. This can help us maintain optimal psychological well-being.
