Gallegos 1

Stephanie Gallegos
Professor Baird
ENG 1010 Section #63
05/01/2014
Positions Synthesis Face this Book!
In the past decade new discoveries in technology have been sprouting rapidly and
coincidentally our everyday lives have been changing as well. Transportation, the food and
media industries, communications, and many other things that directly impact our lives are not
the same as they were just ten years ago. The most interesting factor, to me, in this rapid change
is our new developments in communications. What you may have encountered just ten years ago
as a normal conversation is completely different today. As you walk down a sidewalk in a
well-populated city and observe people conversing, you will most likely find that a few of them
are just attempting to converse while starring down at a mobile device of some sort. This way of
communicating screen-to-screen rather than face-to-face really became popular after the
invention of social medias such as, Facebook and Twitter, on mobile devices. As with any other
new technological advance, many fears and questions arise. Many people, especially parents, are
concerned that younger generations are developing low self-esteem because of social medias
like Facebook. Others argue that not only does Facebook and other similar sites affect social
lives negatively, but it is also an advocate for a narcissistic personality. Some even assert that
social media has actually benefitted their social lives rather than negatively impacting it. After
doing my research I have mixed emotions about this social trends affects, but overall I can agree
that there are definitely negative effects, like low self-esteem, that overrule the positive ones and
Gallegos 2

that Facebook is a promoter of narcissism, but I also feel that in some extreme situations social
media can have a good influence on an individuals social life.
For instance, a general negative social effect that is known through research to be
promoted through Facebook is low self-esteem. Basically, the environment on a social media
website like Facebook is easily manipulated in comparison to an in-person social interaction.
Thus, it is a more manageable type of social setting for those who have low self-esteem. This
may sound good, but the downfall is that the individuals begin to rely on social media. Which
then creates an endless cycle of outcast individuals with low self-esteem using social media as
their only means of socializing effectively. In Mehdizadehs research in Self Presentation
2.0: Narcissism and Self-Esteem on Facebook, she found that Individuals with low self-esteem
will be correlated with a greater amount of Facebook activity and Individuals with low self-
esteem scores will use more self-promoting content on Facebook (359). So this conclusion of an
endless cycle derived from lack of confidence makes sense, according to this research. As social
media would become their only or main mean of socializing they would use it more often than
others and due to a lack of confidence and thus a lack of self-presentation they would then use
more self-promoting and content in order to fill that void of self-expression. As Nitzberg and et.
al. said, SNS provides a metric for social comparison that can exacerbate any preexisting
tendencies users have toward low self-esteem (1184). This statement as well as the research
from Mehdizadeh disproves, to an extent, the opinion that Facebook benefits those who are shy
or simply just incapable of having effective social interactions outside of web-based
communications.
In fact, research has actually shown that Facebook does the opposite of benefiting those
who are incapable of socializing outside of web-based communications. This research has
Gallegos 3

proved that Facebook and similar social media sites have effects of promoting narcissism
particularly on those vulnerable to using Facebook as their only or main means of
communicating. The environment of a social networking site is said to be the cause of this effect,
as Mehdizadeh states, social-networking Web pages are highly controlled environments that
allow owners complete power over self-presentationsThis type of virtual arena allows
narcissists to pursue an innite number of trivial friendships and further enables them to boast
self-views of positive agentic traits (358). Basically, the online environment is the perfect
setting for a narcissists to express themselves in ways they cant in a face-to-face social
interaction. The representation of a narcissistic personality in social networking is the result of
the favorable environment, which is elaborated more in-depth by Kapidzic, SNSs are favorable
for the manifestation of narcissistic behavior, as they offer individuals an environment in which
they can present a selective and controlled construct of themselves to an audience.

Research
indicates that individuals who are high in narcissism have a highly inflated, positive self-concept

and are concerned with their physical appearance (15). This way of self-expression and results
of profile activity can also relate to those with low self-esteem on social networking sites. Both
types of personalities are trying to express themselves the way they choose rather than the way
they actually are. The only difference is that narcissists would take advantage of the opportunity
to self-boast whereas those with low self-esteem would simply us the sites as a means of making
friends and socializing more effectively, since they struggle doing so in an in-person social
interaction.
While this connection between narcissism and Facebook makes sense, some feel the
effects of social networking are being over thought. Instead of narcissism or low self-esteem
being promoted in social media, they feel it is simply a need for popularity that is being
Gallegos 4

advocated for. Although a need for popularity may seem to be fairly similar to narcissism, it is
actually quite different. As explained in this elaboration Need for Popularity refers to the
motivation to do certain things in order to appear popular.

Need for popularity appears related to
narcissism, but whereas narcissists actually believe they are superior, especially when it comes to
agentic traits,

individuals with a high need for popularity merely want to be perceived as
popular ( Utz, et. al. 37). So, this point of view states that the effects of social media have been
assumed to be an advocate for narcissism, which would be understandable seeing that the
meaning of a need for popularity could easily be misunderstood for narcissism. This theory stood
out from the rest because it doesnt really relate to any of the others. In contrary, it is actually a
complete opposition of most of the other theories on the concept of Facebook and narcissism.
But, to me, this theory is doing exactly what it claims others have done, over thought the effects
of social media.
In contrast to the theory of a need for popularity, narcissism, and low self-esteem, some
strongly believe that Facebook and other social networking sites have actually benefitted their
social lives rather than impacted it negatively. Due to this new thought on social media, some
psychiatrists have started to use this new way of connecting to benefit their patients and even
speed up their recovery time. The idea that something that seems to be so negatively looked upon
could actually benefit the mentally ill was shocking to me. This first treatment in this case study
wasnt a forced matter, the individual decided to join Facebook on his own, but the psychiatrists
was very astonished by the results. This is a case report of a 52 year old African American man
who was previously diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder type I and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
After several months in treatment, Mr. A told his therapist that he had signed up for
Facebook, an online social networking site. He has been using the Internet prior to that,
Gallegos 5

but that largely consisted in browsing the Internet and using it to make certain purchases.
Only after several months in therapy did Mr. A join Facebook. He subsequently gradually
befriended online several of his former high-school and college classmates. He also
started cyber-chatting with his son, with whom he has not previously maintained contact
for several years. Mr. A also found his ex-wife on Facebook and befriended her. They
had not had contact for 8 years, and after chatting for a few weeks, they started actually
talking on the phone. Eventually, Mr. A arranged to meet some of his high school and
college friends in person. He went to a movie with one of them, visited another at her
home for dinner, and even went to an auto-show with two other former friends from
college. As his interactions with the therapist became more open, and his level of trust
deepened, he was able to engage more with his friends whom he eventually met after
establishing initial contact through Facebook. (Veretilo, et. al. 389)
The results, as you can see, were pretty interesting. This small change in Mr. As social life
changed his perception of socializing and helped him break through his mental illness. The
shocking part is that he had been going through a routine treatment months before this occurred,
yet they werent seeing dramatic changes such as they did after he started using Facebook. This
is emphasized through this statement, Throughout the year of the therapists interaction with
Mr. A, he went from being mostly a recluse to establishing a circle of friends and being able to
gradually transition his interactions from the Internet into the real world (389). So, even though
most of what Mr. A relearned about socializing was through a web-based type of communication
he was still able to apply that to face-to-face interactions. This research doesnt necessarily
disprove any of the previous theories such as the connection between Facebook and narcissism,
Gallegos 6

but it definitely does bring some new and interesting information to the table, which should be
taken into consideration when making conclusions about the effects social media.
Thus, I will take my own advice and consider this case study while making my
conclusion on the effects that social networking has on individuals. So, I can agree that there
may be negative effects from social media, such as low self-esteem and narcissism, but in
extreme cases, such as Mr. As, social media does have the potential to benefit an individuals
social life dramatically. Researchers have long assumed that the one particular factor they felt
was the exact answer in the possible effects of social media, was in fact the correct solution. For
instance, Mehdizadeh, Nitzburg and et. al. felt that Facebook is an advocate for narcissism. Then
Utz and et. al. argued against that theory and stated that Facebook is actually a promoter of a
need for popularity. And then Veretilo and et. al. brought new information by asserting that
Facebook has the potential to benefit an individuals social life. Ultimately, when searching for
an effect of something so widely used by a range of different people, one should expect there to
be more than one exact answer, its situational. This information researched has more important
implications for the broader argument of communications in general. Every type of
communication has its pros and cons, at that point it is dependent on the situation and the weight
of the pros versus the cons as to whether or not that form of communication would be useful.






Gallegos 7

Works Cited
Kapidzic, Sanja. "Narcissism as a Predictor of Motivations Behind Facebook Profile Picture
Selection." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 16.1 (2013): 14-19.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Mehdizadeh, Soraya. "Self-Presentation 2.0: Narcissism and Self-Esteem on Facebook."
Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 13.4 (2010): 357-364. Business Source
Premier. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Nitzburg, George C., and Barry A. Farber. "Putting Up Emotional (Facebook) Walls?
Attachment Status and Emerging Adults' Experiences of Social Networking Sites."
Journal of Clinical Psychology 69.11 (2013): 1183-1190. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Utz, Sonja, Martin Tanis, and Ivar Vermeulen. "It Is All About Being Popular: The Effects Of
Need For Popularity On Social Network Site Use." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social
Networking 15.1 (2012): 37-42. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Veretilo, Pavel, and Stephen Billick. "Psychiatric Illness and Facebook: A Case Report."
Psychiatric Quarterly 83.3 (2012): 385-389. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Apr.
2014.