EFFECTS OF FACEBOOK USAGE ON SELF-ESTEEM OF INDIVIDUALS

Abstract

Facebook has become a global communication platform for individuals around the world. The controlled environment allows users to form identities that present the positive and selective part of self, and form a distinctive environment according to self-perception and self-presentational needs. This study hypothesizes the relationship of self-esteem to number of facebook friends, number of years of membership, and hourly consumption of Facebook on daily basis. Self-esteem constitutes of self-presentation, self-perception and social support and comparison. A survey of 400 university and college students was conducted for this research. Among the respondents, 200 students were from the National University of Sciences & Technology while the rest were from different colleges, universities and organizations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The results of the study reveal that majority of the users strongly agree that they evaluate the content and try to present a positive and selective self. The more the years a person had been using Facebook for, the more is self-presentation evaluated. The self-perception in terms of feedback received shows that it has significant negative relationship with daily usage of Facebook and with number of friends in friend list. For social support and comparison similar trends (highly significant negative relationship) as of self-perception can be seen in relationship between number of friends on Facebook and number of hours spent on Facebook on daily basis with social support and comparison.