1. Introduction
In this new era it is unsettling for many psychologists that people readily reveal personal information online via social networking sites (Lannin & Scott, 2013). It is this online communication that has provided emerging prospects to study social influences (Guadagno et el., 2013). This paper will discuss the effects of social psychology concepts with regard to self-perception and self-presentation via social networking sites. It will also analyze the perception of others on these social media platforms.
2. Self-Perception on Social Networking Sites
2.1. Self-Concept and Self-Schemas
Self-Perception is defined as an awareness of the characteristics that constitute one’s self; self-knowledge (“Self Perception”, n.d.). Similarly,
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There is a new social norm developing such that people take pictures of their food at every meal and post it on social media mainly Instagram. Even though I don’t quite see the beauty in food, I would still try to take a nice photo and post it on Instagram so people would think I am just like them. This act is simply to fit in with the new social norm of taking pictures of food before I eat and posting it up to gain “likes”. At meals, I would observe my friends taking pictures of food at every possible angle, even though I was hungry and was not concerned about the pictures of food, I would conform to the group and allow them to think that I did not mind as I would go along and post up a photo too.
Moreover I tend to promote myself on Instagram by posting pictures of my assignments well done with the hashtags “accomplishment unlocked”. Just last semester after my marketing integrated project, I posted a picture on Instagram of my group mates and captioned it “100 slides. 42 pages. 30 minutes. 6 girls. 5 months. 3 modules. 1 business. We are so done with IP.” I felt really proud of our work and needed to show people what we are capable of. This is also a form of self-promotion as I felt the need to be recognized and respected by others for my efforts and hard