Gender-based Analysis of the Impact of Social Media on the Self-esteem of Individuals

Abstract

Recent times have brought in a lot of rapid technological changes with everyone having a completely different life on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) like Instagram, Facebook etc. People now have a constant urge to update each and everything about their lives on their social media accounts. Individuals are in a continuous comparison with their friends or acquaintance’s social media updates, which may often result in low self-esteem and low self-worth. The objective of this study was hence conceptualized to get a better understanding of the phenomena, their underlying causes and factors and studying the link between the two. In pursuance of the objective a sample of 52 individuals, 26 males and 26 females of age group 16-25 were administered Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale and a self-made Social Media Questionnaire to compare the levels of self-esteem in the individuals of different genders. To further analyse the data, t-test was used to compare the responses using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results of the study indicated a significant difference in self-esteem of males however, self-esteem in females were seen to be insignificant who were exposed to SNSs.