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Com Research Final Paper
Com Research Final Paper
This study examined the relationship between frequency of posting selfies and self-esteem of
individuals. Subjects answered a survey about their self-esteem and their frequency of posting
selfies on various social media platforms. Analysis of the data revealed that there is no
Introduction
Social media is a way to stay connected with individuals we may not be in contact with
anymore, or to simply let our followers know what we are doing. A social media concept that
attracts a lot of attention is a selfie. A selfie is the act of taking a picture of oneself from a
webcam or cell phone camera (Tiidenberg, 2016). Then, an individual will choose to post that
selfie or not to one or more social media platforms. Each social media user is different, and
therefore have different individual goals and agendas. This study examines how different
Literature Review
Frequency of posting on social media is impacted by a group’s view of their own social
norms. With millennials, frequently self-disclosing personal information over social media can
be viewed as oversharing. In a study about depressed adolescents, Radovic, Gmelin, Stein, and
Miller (2017) concluded that younger groups, as audiences of selfies, are not typically
comfortable with oversharing. They also identified that depressed adolescents are more likely to
self-disclose more information over social media. With regards to the genders as a whole,
females spend more time on social media than males because they take more time to edit the
things that they post. Females spend a majority of their time editing selfies that they plan to post
(Dhir, Pallasen, Torsheim, & Andreassen, 2016). Both females and males of all age groups spend
a large amount of time on social media/checking social media, but their usage patterns are
different because of social norms (Dhir, Pallasen, Torsheim, & Andreassen, 2016). Adolescents
usually post on social media more frequently than other age groups as a way to connect with one
another (Radovic, Gmelin, Stein, & Miller, 2017). Numerically, the frequency of social media
usage is hard to track. Time spent on social media is recorded more often than frequency of
posts.
One of the most frequently mentioned facts regarding self-esteem is that humans have a
“need for self-esteem” (Schlenker, 1980). Self-esteem is defined as “an individual’s positive or
negative evaluation of himself or herself” (Smith, Mackie, & Claypool, 2014). According to
Schlenker, it is reasonable to assume that people with low self-esteem will be more eager to
engage in activities that are likely to raise self-esteem. In contrast, Baumeister (1982) shows that
people with high self-esteem strive to increase it further through elaborate self-presentation while
people with low self-esteem prefer consistent self-presentation and do not attempt to engage in
compensatory presentations. Gabriel (2014) states that although social media allows people to be
more social, it also can lead to cyberbullying which often decreases self-esteem. One way to
attempt to increase self-esteem is through taking and posting selfies. According to Shin, Kim, Im
and Chong (2016), taking selfies actually decreases self-esteem; this study had participants take a
selfie and then post it to social media or save it to their phone. They discovered that saving
selfies on a phone rather than posting them on social media had a negative effect on people’s
self-esteem level. Posting a selfie online allows people to see an individual’s image and usually
results in receiving likes which could lead to an increase in the person’s self-esteem.
Rationale and Hypotheses
Posting selfies is a current fad that college students are immersed in. Many studies have
been conducted on selfie posting, but have neglected the frequency of posts and their effects on
self-esteem.
As Schlenker (1980) stated, all humans have a “need for self-esteem.” In today’s world,
the most common way for people to achieve an optimal level of self-esteem is through social
media. Because social media is a convenient way for large groups of people to view a user’s
activities, users try to portray themselves in a manner which will allow them to have positive
self-esteem. Shin, Kim, Im and Chong (2016) conducted a study in an attempt to find a
relationship between posting selfies online and self-esteem. They found that when people took a
selfie and posted it on social media they recorded higher self-esteem than those who took a selfie
and saved it to their phone instead of posting it. We assume that this is a result of converting
received likes from followers into a feeling of achievement, resulting in higher self-esteem. This
particular study did not dissect how the frequency of posting could connect to the self-esteem of
H1: How frequently a social media user posts selfies to their social media platforms directly
In a previous study conducted by Radovic, Gmelin, Stein, and Miller (2017) the
researchers measured time spent on social media and its effects on self-presentation, but did not
measure time by frequency of posting and did not touch upon effects of posting on self-esteem.
This study will aim to identify correlations between frequency of posting selfies and self-esteem.
Method
Procedure and Sample
The research participants were individual students from Bryant University in Smithfield,
Rhode Island. We anticipated these individuals to be between 18 and 24 years of age. These
individuals will be classified as freshmen, sophomore, junior, or senior. The participants will be
clustered in the various organizations that the researchers are involved in. We believe that Bryant
University students are representative of all college-aged individuals because of the diverse
backgrounds that are represented in the student body. Of the 297 participants, 36 were excluded
from the analysis leaving a total of 261 valid responses. Of the 261 responders, 137 (52.5%)
were male, 118 (45.2%) were female, and 6 (2.3%) did not wish to disclose their gender. The
For our research plan, we decided to collect data through an online survey. The first half
of the questions consist of those that we came up with ourselves. All of which will pertain to the
frequency of posting selfies. There is minimal research recorded in regards to the relationship of
Frequency. Frequency of posting a selfie is conceptually defined as how often one posts
a self-picture to a social media platform. We have chosen to define frequency of posting a selfie
operationally as how often an individual posts a selfie picture to Facebook, VSCO, Instagram,
Twitter, and Snapchat (including selfies sent to individuals/groups). Our survey questions
allowed us to identify our participant’s frequency of posting, by having the participants identify
how many selfies they post to each social media platform on an average week. These numbers
were then compared to their Rosenberg scale score to identify if there is any relationship.
Self-Esteem. Self-esteem is conceptually defined as an individual's sense of his or her
value or worth, or the extent to which a person values, approves of, appreciates, prizes, or likes
him or herself. The second half of the survey that will be given to responders is Rosenberg’s
(1989) Self-Esteem Scale. The scale included 10 personal statements and had respondents state
which level the question applied to them (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree).
Our initial plan was to conduct face-to-face interviews. However, it was quickly learned that
individuals are more likely to be honest through a Likert scale via the computer; self-esteem can
be a touchy subject. A Likert scale is most effective in our study because it allows attitudes and
feelings to be measured, without much socially desirable responding. These questions are more
deeply thought out, which is why they are going to be the last half of questions in our survey
(Rosenberg, 1989). Also, we want responders to have their thoughts on selfies in their
Results
Our hypothesis predicted that there would be a negative correlation between frequency of
posting selfies to social media and their self-esteem. Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation
(PPM) was used to test whether there was a positive or negative relationship between our two
variables. Results showed that between frequency of posting (M= 17.64, SD= 6.647) and self-
esteem (M= 46.81, SD = 8.492) there was in fact no correlation. Our correlation coefficient was r
= -.097 showing that there was clearly no relationship between the two variables meaning our
hypothesis is refuted. In terms of reliability, Cronbach’s alpha for frequency was 0.690 which
shows that our scale for frequency of posting is did not entirely measure what it was supposed to.
For self-esteem the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.823 showing that our self-esteem scale was effective
By testing the correlation between the frequency of posting selfies to social media and an
correlation between the two. The result of no correlation is not at all what we were expecting.
We expected that the data collected would show that the more selfies an individual posts, the
lower their self-esteem would be. However, our data proved the complete opposite.
Our group’s study was tainted by a few limitations. The first limit being that our
Cronbach Alpha score of our relative frequency for self-esteem was poor with a score of .690.
Therefore, this led to the disconnection of the variables in our hypothesis. A second limitation
was that some survey responses were answered in a joking or impartial manner. From some
responses, it was clear that the individual taking the survey was not intent on answering the
questions wholeheartedly, but rather in a quick manner. A third limitation came when our
professor, Kevin Pearce, was helping our group analyze our data. Our self-esteem was supposed
difficult for him to analyze our group’s data efficiently and was a minor setback for him.
Something we realized from our disproven hypothesis was that future research could hopefully
help us. Even though frequency of posting selfies was found to not influence levels of self-
esteem through our survey, it is possible that personal interviews on these two variables could
prove otherwise. By speaking face-to-face in an interview setting, researchers could dive more
deeply into an individual’s insecurities when posting selfies to social media platforms. More
future research that could be conducted could find that the number of likes one receives on a
selfie could impact their levels of self-esteem. By examining Baumeister’s (1982) research on
people, possible research can be done to prove that people with high self-esteem strive to
basis.