The Impact of Social Media Use on Self-Esteem Among Psychology Students

Vol. 5, No. 1

Abstract

This study evaluates college students' self-esteem levels in relation to their social media practices. Users of social media platforms create the most idealized version of their lives and share with inherent selectivity. As a result, social media has created an ideal environment for social comparison, with billions of people actively scrolling through the fabricated lives of their peers in exchange for numerical validation. Social comparison can involve comparing one's own achievements, appearance, beliefs, and social position to those of others, which can have the potential to have either a positive or negative impact on self-esteem among the students. Since then, these sites have grown in popularity, an aspect of people's lives, particularly the lives of the youth. A large number of teenagers are using social media, particularly Facebook, to interact and create relationships with the rest of the world, share and receive knowledge and information, forge stronger bonds and personalities, and lead more fulfilling social lives. Many college students rely on social media sites to engage in romantic and casual internet relationships. Social Media enable users to make social comparisons, which increases psychological suffering and lowers general self-esteem.

This study was conducted to explore the Impact of Social Media use on Self-Esteem among psychology students at Bestlink College of the Philippines during the academic year 2023-2024. The researchers utilized a quantitative research design research methodology to analyze the connection between Self-esteem as an independent variable and social media as a dependent variable. The main objective of this research is to determine whether social media has a significant impact on self-esteem among students. To achieve this goal, simple random sampling techniques were used under probability sampling methods. In order to collect data for this study, questionnaires are issued to the participants. An online survey questionnaire gathers data that allows respondents to provide necessary information for the research. Researchers will use lists of planned questions related to social media and self-esteem, and they will select them in online questionnaire form to indicate responses to each question. The researchers created self-developed questionnaires consisting of fifteen (15) item questions as an instrument. It should be noted that the names of respondents are optional in this study.