While social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter connect millions of subscribers to family, friends and co-workers, they also attract behavior that is less than healthy and inappropriate. Many experts argue that social networking sites can affect self-esteem and perpetuate addiction.
Social Networks and Self-Esteem
Social networking sites can bring out insecurities in people. According to Rita Florez in "Status Foe: Aging and Anxiety on Social Networks," many people who use social networking sites such as Facebook feel pressured to aggrandize their lives to compete with socially constructed beliefs about success. Having the wonderful job, the happy family and the beautiful home become a front to hide the mundane lives people usually live behind their Facebook profiles. Florez writes that, "Inevitably, social networks have become the suburban neighborhoods of white picket fences, and our profiles serve as digital front yards, all prettied up for the purpose of keeping up with the neighbors." What many people portray on their profiles and status updates is not about who they are, but rather who they want to be. People want to believe that they are living in the effervescent vignettes they have constructed online to fulfill their insecurities and elevate their self-esteem.
Another way people try to increase feelings of self-worth on social network sites is by doing side-by-side comparisons of themselves with the profiles of their peers. According to Saleem Alhabash, a PhD student at the University of Missouri School of Journalism who researches the psychological, social and political effects of social networking sites, what people mostly do on Facebook is "passive surveillance" (qtd. in Florez). Besides updating profiles and statuses, many people spend a lot of time monitoring each other. They measure their own lives by the ostensible success of others.
Both Florez and Alhabash suggest that the need for people to fluff up their lives on social networking sites is normal. People just want to feel better about themselves and not have their egos deflated; however, they should be aware of their behavior and should not obsess too much about the need to impress and watch their friends online. People should be cautious about their social networking behavior turning into a compulsion.
Social Network Sites and Addiction
Some therapists state that they are seeing more of their patients cross the line from healthy social networking to social networking compulsion that interferes with their lives. According to CNN in "Five Clues That You Are Addicted to Facebook" Paula Pile a marriage and family therapist states, "...problems arise when users ignore family and work obligations because they find the Facebook world a more enjoyable place to spend time than the real world." Avoidance of the real world can turn into a serious problem, especially as people neglect their relationships, responsibilities and health. Even though social networking addiction is not a physical addiction like drugs or alcohol, it is still an emotional addiction and can be just as harmful.
According to CNN, five signs a person is addicted to social networking sites are giving up sleep for more social networking time, spending more than one hour a day social networking, obsessing over past sweethearts, spending too much time at work on social networking sites and feeling a lot of anxiety about going one day without checking a social networking site.
Social Networking Sites: Beneficial or Dysfunctional?
While many people enjoy connecting with friends, relatives and co-workers on social networking sites, it is important for people to not let the online world consume their lives. People who obsess too much about social networking sites, should seek help from a medical expert.
References:
Bitch, "Status Foe: Aging and Anxiety on Social Networks," Florez, Rita, Spring 10:46, 2010.
Cathy Herold - Cathy Herold lives in southern California. She has a BA in English and minor in African American Studies from UCLA and a master's degree ...
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