Is Social Media Affecting Your Self-Esteem?

Abstract

Developing and maintaining self-esteem is an important part of adolescence and research has shown that it may be impacted by certain aspects of social media use with a recent uptick in visual-based platforms. In some cases, the impact may be positive, but in others it may be negative, which can be harmful to overall mental health. Our team’s project was aimed at developing an evidence-based action plan to address these impacts on self-esteem for adolescents who use visual-based social media. Incorporating research on social comparison and validation as mechanisms that play a role in the effect of social media on self-esteem, we developed an action plan to be implemented both at home and school. With time and resource limitations in mind, this plan aims to take advantage of existing courses to promote positive development of self-esteem and teach adolescents how to navigate social media in safe and healthy ways, which could ultimately contribute to improving overall adolescent well-being.