Since emerging in the first decade of the 21st century, social media has become a global phenomenon. Monthly active users of Facebook and YouTube are more than two billion each, while Instagram has more than half a million, Twitter 330 million and Snapchat hovers around 300 million (David, 2020). The rise in popularity of social media can be attributed to its ability to satisfy our intrinsic need to connect and feel socially included. This article examines the impact of the pervasive use of social media on the self-esteem of users, and explores the possible role of the age of initiation of use on the relationship between social media use and self-esteem.
While social media is valuable for maintaining social capital and providing a platform for self-expression, intense comparison with idealised versions of others can have a negative effect on self-esteem. The negative effects can induce feelings of failure, social isolation, body image dissatisfaction, depression and anxiety in the user.
The negative impacts of social media use are further complicated by new research which claims social media use actually has little-to-no effect on self-esteem (e.g., Saiphoo et al., 2020). This lack of agreement by researchers on such a key issue points to the need for a more in-depth look at social media use and its psychological impacts. People studying the field suggest we begin by examining the relationship between social media use and self-esteem by means of age and generational group.
Generational differences
Recent studies consistently mention that overall, different generations (e.g., Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y/Millennials, Generation Z) have different general levels of self-esteem and therefore very different experiences of social media (e.g., Hardy & Castonguay, 2018).
For example, commentators note the older section of Generation X (roughly born between 1965–1980) have integrated social media into their lives while continuing to use traditional media, such as TV and radio. Labelled the ‘digital immigrants’, this generation’s technological literacy is lower than younger generations, and although they are digitally curious, their usage tends to be narrower and less experimental. As such, Generation X generally prefer social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube to connect with their inner social networks of people.
By contrast, younger groups have a different relationship with social media. Generation Y/Millennials (born between 1981–1998) view technology as an integral part of life and actively contribute, share and consume content while working, socialising and playing on social media platforms. This generation have been named the ‘digital natives’, whose early and frequent exposure to technology has made them rely heavily on it for entertainment, communication and even as a way to regulate their emotions.
Generation Z, (born between 1999–present) are so-called ‘mobile natives’ with digital mobility, ephemerality and constant connectivity distinguishing them from their predecessors. This generation have been claimed to perceive the internet and use of digital mobile devices as a natural element of everyday life, preferring instantaneous ways of communicating through technology, with an aversion to amassing an enduring status with permanent information.
Self-esteem issues
The younger generations are commonly motivated to use social media sites which also help support their search for identity and social interaction. Their preferred sites (such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok) are predominantly image-centric with enhanced features and ways to present yourself built into the platform functions (e.g., beauty filters, photo enhancers).
Research also suggests people in the older generations broadly have higher and more stable self-esteem, coupled with a developmental shift away from social comparison towards self-reflection. It makes sense that this might protect older individuals from the potentially harmful effects of social comparison on self-esteem that social media can provoke in younger people.
Additionally, studies suggest social media use by older generations may have a diminished effect on self-esteem because older people are more likely to have already adopted and maintained traditional, non-digital socialisation methods which helped them develop healthy interpersonal relationships relative to life stage.
In contrast, the self-esteem of younger generations is reported to be lower and less stable as they mature, and make their way from childhood, to adolescence and into young adulthood. Their use of social media throughout this transformation period coincides with their wide range of social, psychological, cognitive and biological changes. As such, these groups more readily seek out and adopt social comparison with peers they see on social media, which may fuel the intense, shifting process of identity formation underway during early-life stages. The research certainly supports the idea that younger generations use social media more frequently and are more affected by social media use than older generations (Hayes et al., 2015).
Age of initiation
A potential moderating influence on the social media use–self-esteem relationship could be the age an individual begins using social media. As self-esteem has been found to rise and fall across the lifespan (Orth et al., 2018), a person could be more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media use on their self-esteem depending on when they first began engaging with it. Using social media from an early age is widely regarded as a risk factor and strong predictor of problematic psychosocial outcomes in other areas of mental health, particularly early substance use and sexual activities. This suggests early age of initiation might also be an important risk factor when investigating the association between social media use and self-esteem.
Given all this, we designed a study which built on previous social media research to examine the moderating role of age of initiation of social media on the association between social media use and self-esteem. Our study predicted that (1) social media use would be negatively correlated with self-esteem, after controlling for age and gender, and (2) the moderating role of age of initiation of social media would be positively correlated with self-esteem, after controlling for age and gender. We expected that the negative association between social media use and self-esteem would be strongest in those who began using social media at a younger age.
What did we discover?
We looked at age and gender differences for social media use (hours per day) and self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) by analysis of our quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational study across the following social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Vines, Reddit, TikTok, gaming platforms such as Xbox Live or PlayStation Network, and others). People (N = 229) over 18 years were recruited to take an anonymous online self-report survey via Qualtrics through the Edith Cowan University psychology undergraduate research participation scheme, as well as the wider university and general community. Participants were aged between 18 and 53 years (M = 29.23, SD = 8.42), with 35 males (15.30%) and 192 females (83.80%). The table illustrates generational cohort mean differences in self-esteem, age of initiation of social media and social media use.
Correlational analyses revealed the older the age of initiation of social media, the higher the self-esteem of the user (r = .29). Furthermore, the younger the age of initiation of social media, the more the individual used social media (r = -.27). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed lower self-esteem in younger individuals compared to older. However, the analyses failed to establish any relationship between social media use, age of initiation of social media and the interaction term on self-esteem, after age and gender were accounted for.
Generational cohort interpretations
Our research found differences in self-esteem, age of initiation of social media and social media use in the correlational analyses. Current literature suggests differences in the use of social media may be explained by generational differences, with studies reporting distinctions of social media use between the generations (e.g., Prensky, 2001).
The predominantly image-centric social media platforms, popular with the younger generations in particular, potentially increase the vulnerability of younger users to the negative effects of upward social comparison and thus subsequent threats to their emergent self-esteem.
However, despite these negative aspects, younger generations still obtain the same benefits of social media use as older generations, with social media acting as a powerful tool to facilitate connectedness and self-expression. Indeed, this nullifying effect of the positive and negative attributes of social media use could explain the absence of association between self-esteem, age of initiation of social media and social media use in the hierarchical regression analyses we conducted.
Questions of significance
Overall, our study found while age and gender were associated with self-esteem, social media use had no significant association with self-esteem, after age and gender were accounted for. Exploration of the moderating role of age of initiation of social media to explain some of the complexity of the social media–self-esteem relationship also failed to establish an association.
This lack of relationship between social media variables and self-esteem questioned the significant links regularly reported in scientific, political and public domains. Indeed, the absence of association between social media variables and self-esteem in this study may be explained by the nullifying combination of the positive and negative attributes of social media use. It appears the basic demographic characteristics of the user have a stronger association with self-esteem than social media variables.
All of which means it seems more important to pay attention to which types of social media platforms people are using, and how, than when they began using them.
References
David, D. (2020). Social media statistics Australia – January 2020. Social Media News.Com.Au. https://socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-january-2020/
Hardy, B. W., & Castonguay, J. (2018). The moderating role of age in the relationship between social media use and mental well-being: An analysis of the 2016 General Social Survey. Computers in Human Behavior, 85, 282-290.
Hayes, M., van Stolk-Cooke, K., & Muench, F. (2015). Understanding Facebook use and the psychological affects of use across generations. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 507-511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.040
Orth, U., Erol, R. Y., & Luciano, E. C. (2018). Development of self-esteem from age 4 to 94 years: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 144(10), 1045- 1080. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000161
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5). https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/31169414/Digital_Natives__Digital_Immigrants.pdf?1366686458
Saiphoo, A. N., Halevi, L. D., & Vahedi, Z. (2020). Social networking site use and self-esteem: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Individual Differences, 153, 109639. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zahra_Vahedi2/publication/336797402
This article was originally published in InPsych, November 2021