In our modern society, one of the main ways, if not the primary way, people interact with others is through the use of social media. Through social media such as FaceBook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and many others, we can choose how we present ourselves to others in a manner that we have much more control over than our everyday lives. This, of course, leads people to share almost exclusively the most positive aspects of their lives and themselves. While this is a way to share fun moments with friends and family, it is also how most people set up an image of themselves for those who are merely acquaintances. Social media profiles serve as a way for people to portray themselves as better than they are, or what they wish to be, while also causing others to have an unrealistic view of how these people are in real life. While this means that posting on social media will give others a generally more positive view of you(Vogel & Rose, 2017), I would argue that this is a superficial and unrealistic view, and lends itself to weaker interpersonal relationships.

        The research I am reviewing for this topic was published in 2017 by Erin Vogel and Jason Rose. They chose to explore how looking at a social media profile of somebody could affect one’s perception upon meeting that person, compared to a meeting without looking at a profile. They chose to pursue this research in response to the large number of studies coming out on the negative effects of social media regarding one’s self-opinion, and wanted to see how your perceptions of somebody else can be affected by social media. Further, they wanted this to be conducted using acquaintances as opposed to strangers, as you are much more likely to repeatedly interact with an acquaintance in the real world. They tried this in two different experiments. The volunteers were taken from a Midwestern United States university, and consisted mostly of white females. Participants in the FaceBook group were told to choose five profiles they would like to view, and spent one minute reviewing each profile. The control group wrote down the names of five acquaintances, but did not look at their social media profiles. All participants were then asked to rate either the people they wrote down or those whose profiles they visited on attractiveness, likeability, popularity and success. This study found that “65.23% of participants in the sample who viewed FaceBook profiles evaluated targets more positively than the average person who did not view FaceBook.”(Vogel & Rose, 2017) This first experiment did not seem to test their hypothesis very well, the participants in the FaceBook group most likely suffered from recency bias when evaluating their targets, as they not only chose those profiles to view, but they were just recently looking at only the best parts of their lives, and for a short period of time right before evaluating them. Also, both groups selected their own targets, which would likely lead them to evaluate them more favorably than if they had not chosen them, as they likely want to reinforce that they made a good choice when picking their targets. The experimental results may have been more valuable if the targets were chosen randomly from a given list of acquaintances, but that may be less feasible for a larger sample size. Vogel and Rose acknowledged some of the shortcomings of this experiment, such as the fact that “participants in the Facebook condition were given time to view targets’ profiles before making their evaluations, whereas participants in the control condition were not actively thinking about the targets until they began their evaluations” (Vogel and Rose, 2017). These were taken into account when the next experiment was designed. In the second experiment, participants were asked to name only one target, somebody specified to be an acquaintance, but not somebody too close to the participant. The FaceBook group was given 3 minutes to browse the target’s profile, and the control group was given a questionnaire to fill out about the target. All participants were then asked to evaluate the target in a similar manner, this time taking into account the nature of the relationship between the participant and the target. The results for the second experiment were very similar to that of the first experiment, but the difference between the experimental and control groups’ rating of their target was slightly smaller. Once again, the participants were given the ability to choose their own targets, meaning that their ratings will most likely always be positive. Additionally, while the questionnaire keeps the target salient in the mind similar to the experimental group, the FaceBook profile will most likely always bring positive thoughts of the person to mind. If there could be a way to do an in-person meeting after the experimental procedure and before evaluation, perhaps the data could be more applicable to in-person interactions between people. Of course, the results still hold true, when exposed to the social media profile of an acquaintance, we tend to think more favorably about that person, especially in regard to what Vogel and Rose considered to be “subjective, value-laden characteristics”(Vogel & Rose, 2017) such as intelligence, attractiveness, likeability and success.

        The tendency of social media to highlight one’s subjective and desirable characteristics will appeal most to those who value those characteristics the highest, of which a majority are adolescents and young adults. Middle-school, high-school, and college students are the groups that are most likely to be exposed to an acquaintance’s profile. As the internet has become integrated into our lives, it has become integrated into our social lives. A student going through the education system is guaranteed to interact with somebody who has a social media account, and will most likely make one for themselves. Adolescents in school have many people that they see and interact with regularly without forming closing bonds. These relationships, which are likely the most plentiful, are the ones that will be most influenced by social media. While social media does give people an opportunity to connect with many of their peers, the widespread use of social media reinforces that the traits that society gives arbitrary value, attractiveness, success, how liked on is by their peers, etc are the ones that are most important. This is extremely unhealthy given that adolescents entering adulthood are uncertain about themselves and how they fit into the world around them. A cycle is created, where adolescents use social media, see a post reinforcing an acquaintance’s subjective traits, think more positively of that person, post on social media in a manner that reinforces their subjective traits, receive positive feedback, repeat. Furthermore, teaching young adults and adolescents to present themselves and form relationships in this manner will translate into how they approach self-presentation and interpersonal relationships into their adulthood.

        The research conducted by Vogel and Rose certainly supported the idea that social media is increasingly influencing people’s day-to-day lives. I do believe that there were a few issues regarding how the experiment was conducted, but most of my suggestions required a great deal more resources or time investment, and the data they were able to collect using their means was very useful in demonstrating their point. As people’s perceptions of others are influenced by social media, they are forming an unrealistic image of the other person, and by extension will begin to compare themselves to this unrealistic image. Of course, there is no easy solution to the social pressures exerted by the use of social media, but increasing awareness of how unrealistic it can be is a solid foundation.

Research and article curtesy of:

Anthony Knowles, student of psychology, based in Northampton MA.

References

Erin A. Vogel, Jason P. Rose. (2017) Perceptions of Perfection: The Influence of Social Media on Interpersonal Evaluations. Basic and Applied Sociology, 39, 317-325