In the article,
"Antecedents and Consequences of Online Social Networking Behavior: The
Case of Facebook" Adam Acar discusses the impact social networking has on
people and their relationships. I found it very interesting that Acar chose to
focus on self-esteem, anxiety and body and compare online social networks with
face-to-face networks. As I was reading this article I found myself think a bit
differently with his hypotheses. For some reason I have always had the notion
that people who have low self-esteem and/or are introverts would have bigger
social networks because it is something they can (1) hide behind or (2) make
themselves to be whoever they'd like. I also noticed that in Acar's article he
states that women are likely to have more networks. I think that is very true.
When looking at my list of friends on Facebook, I have a ton. And I only really
communicated with about 2% of them. From time to time I will sift through my
list just to see if I even know that person or really need to be connected with
them.
Hey Jinxx21,
ReplyDeleteI found the whole body image thing a bit surprising, like, "Really? And that matters why?" It was quite interesting. Aside from that thing, I liked the model they chose to strike out at this investigation.
I also find it interesting that just 6 year ago, Facebook was still open only to college students. As with many of the other studies we've seen, it's amazing how much things change in so short a time; whether it's the 1960's (which, I actually remember), or whether it's 2006, it's not a great span of time we are talking about. Which is to say, I'd be interested to see a more current study on the same subject. I wonder too, if they did this now, would they use the exact same measures? Would they think that body image mattered today?
As far as my impressions on what might be expected based on self esteem, I think I would have assumed that if someone identified as having low self esteem, they would have a small circle of friends. The one point I totally accepted was that with high self esteem (how I gauge myself), I am much more selective about who I friend; I keep very tight control on "friending" (connecting with) people I actually know.
Nice post Jinxx21. I found it really interesting how you thought that people with low self esteem would have larger social groups on facebook. I felt this way too but I guess we were wrong. I think for me personally, growing up I was taught that people with low self esteem are always at home by themselves on a computer. Now I realize that this is a stereotype, but I can definitely say that I used to picture people with low self esteem as participating in online dating and always chatting with people from the comforts of their own home, while people with high self esteem were out in the world meeting people face-to-face. However, over the last few years I think that communicating online through social network sites has gained so much popularity that everyone, including people with good self esteem, use social networks to interact socially.
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