Social Media Comparison Paper

In the modern day, most Americans use social media to maintain relationships and to update other users about their lives. Facebook has become one of the most popular social media sites worldwide and the average person logs onto their Facebook profile at least once a day (Błachnio and Przepiorka, 2016). There is a potential on Facebook for people to compare themselves with the profiles they see online. Status updates, pictures, and videos can be shared for Facebook “friends” to see, which may direct others to observe and then compare their own lives to the percieved lives online. People also can choose to display their romantic relationships online, and people may compare their own relationships with ones they see online. Buunke (2005) found that males were more likely to find autonomous relationships desirable, and females were more likely to find commited

Those who used Facebook more were established to see other profiles as better off than themselves in some situations and worse off than themselves and other situations. The results showed that frequency of Facebook usage is a great predictor of self-esteem and upward and downward comparisons. Upward comparisons tend to have lower self-esteem; however downward comparisons did not show a relation to self-esteem. Upward comparison means comparing yourself to people who are better than you and downward comparison is the opposite. In the study, 145 participants were asked to complete questionnaires about Facebook usage, social comparison on upward and downward views, and the Rosenburg self-esteem scale. The results from Vogel et al.’s study provided a relationship between profiles and the lifestyle perceived and the way one feels about their own self. People who post positive statuses about their romantic relationships on social media may feel that they are more committed to the