Social media's influence on Senior High School students' self-esteem and selfconfidence
Abstract
The researchers conduct this study to distinguish the
influence that social media brings to the self-esteem and
self-confidence of the Grade 11 Senior High School (SHS)
students. It explores selective students' experiences and
narrations presented on social media. The researchers will
showcase qualitative research in this study to delve deeper
into the participant's insights, specified through a case study
to examine the students' different perspectives. An in-depth
interview will be used as its research design that will take
place virtually with a total of
18 participants, fits with the given criteria directed with
interview guides. The participants chosen for the interview
will be from the six sections of the Grade 11 SHS of the ,
where two females and one male from every section will be
selected. Snowball sampling to gather chosen participants
and thematic analysis will be performed for data
interpretation.
Keywords— Social media, self-esteem, self-confidence,
influence, Senior High School students
I.
INTRODUCTION
Assessing an individual's wellbeing and overall outlook in
life has something to do with their self-esteem and selfconfidence and their factors. Self-esteem is just like how a
person looks at themselves in the mirror and perceives how
they value and appreciate themselves. A person's whole
sense of worthiness or importance is referred to as selfesteem (Ackerman, 2021). It is a way of determining how a
person accepts, evaluates, recognizes, wants, and honors
oneself (Adler & Stewart, 2004, as cited in Ackerman,
2021). Considering one's self-esteem is essential for one's
wellbeing. How you reflect, ponder and perform actions has
something to do with one's self-esteem, which can also be
related to one's successful and motivated life. Individuals
who have a good, optimistic self-image are inspired to do
their best and take on new challenges because they
understand their potential (Cherry & Gans, 2021). One
avenue that also needs to assess one's wellbeing is selfconfidence.
Self-confidence affects how we believe in our capabilities
and project towards others. It implies that an individual
recognizes one's potential and expertise and is mindful of
their weaknesses and strengths (Strader et al., 2021). Social
media is an online platform that people use to establish
relationships and social networks with similar interests and
connections. Social media's effect on the youth is substantial
(Akram & Kumar, 2017). It lets people connect to different
sides of the world. They use social media for entertainment,
sharing, search engines, communication, and more. Social
media is available to any smart device, which many people
commonly own. Due to the extensive usage of social media
in the entire globe, a large number of users are from younger
ages. In developing countries, only 6% of teenagers do not
engage with social media, and 94% of the youth utilize
social media (NORC Center for Public Affairs Research,
2017, as cited in Steinsbekk. et al., 2020). From their
exposure to these different social media platforms, there are
possible positive and negative effects on their self-esteem
and confidence. As a result, this research is being carried
out to identify social media's link to students' self-esteem
and self-confidence and to what extent these impacts go.
Data for this study will be gathered through an in-depth
interview. Thematic analysis will be performed for data
interpretation.
II.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The prevalent use of social media across different
countries and cultures has been rapidly growing these days
since our society is now in the information age where
various communicative processes and "social functions"
(Vogel et al., 2014) depend on the use of social networking
sites (SNSs). A previous survey conducted by the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2018 stated
that adolescents ages from 13 to 17 years old utilize social
media, which comprises nearly all of its population (90%).
Teenagers' social media usage can almost equate to an
average amount of hours of sleeping schedule with the
absence of academic-related tasks, which is quite alarming.
Previous studies and research suggest that social media
usage among adolescents or teenagers had a particular
association with their self-esteem and confidence within
themselves.
Vogel, Rose, Roberts & Eckles (2014) addressed that using
social media; typically, Facebook could bring negative
impact to one's worth and self-esteem, which tend to cause
damage or harm towards one's mental and emotional
wellness in such a way that it compares herself/himself to
those individuals that acquire appealing physical attributes
and characteristics, which is supported by recent studies that
it maximize depression and diminished one's well-being
(Feinstein et al., 2013; Kalpidou, Costin, & Morris, 2011;
Kross et al., 2013; Mehdizadeh, 2010; Rutledge, Gillmor, &
Gillen, 2013). Teenagers' and adolescents' social media
usage exposed them to different factors, like public
Social media's influence on USTP Senior High School students' self-esteem and self-confidence
attention, opinions, and comments, which significantly
impact their self-esteem. Receiving different views of
people towards oneself impacts how they live or change
their lives. Including those they see on the internet makes
them conscious of themselves. Some studies also suggest
that social media could embark optimistic self-perception
upon oneself because you can decide to appear on your best
self-portrait towards the public which in return one can
receive such flattering comments and abundant likes
depending on how someone perceives it, which could boost
one's self-esteem and confidence (Barry et al., 2017). The
consequence of acquiring such low self-esteem due to
teenagers' social media interaction, especially in girls, is
quite alarming, deleterious to one's health and well-being.
The previous study conducted by (Chua & Chang, 2016)
discovered that due to the rise of the popularity of social
media in which mainly all teenage girls engage to where
they follow such bandwagon in the socially constructed
ideas of beauty upon presenting themselves on social media,
which leads to them doing self-harm and treating their body
and health poorly just so that they could attain these
numerous standards of self-presentation.
One useful application of social media is its flexibility to let
the users present such a profile which they could beautify,
alter and present to various audiences and also that user
could share and post pictures of themselves. Such photos
being posted on social media typically highlight every user's
physical appearance, which they tend to emphasize; this will
then push to the uprising of social and self-comparison in
the aspects of one's body and beauty upon self-presentation
(Fox & Vendemia, 2016).
With the complexity of how every individual, primarily
teenagers, uses social media, previous studies are pretty
limited to teenagers' usage and self-presentation and
comparison relating to one's self-esteem and well-being.
The researchers aim to provide relevant information into
what extent social media could affect the Senior High
School students of the University of Science and
Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) to which one
can provide practical solutions and intervention unto how
they could cope-up with the idealistic world of social media
that could eventually promote and boost one's self selfesteem and confidence.
III.
PROBLEM STATEMENT, PURPOSE OF THE STUDY AND
RESEARCH QUESTION/S
Social Media is a widely used computer-based
technology wherein every individual can share one's
thoughts and ideas with just a simple click or press of a
button. Its seemingly limitless potential and capabilities
have made its reputation as of today, but unfortunately, it
also has a counterweight as much as it gives benefits. These
counterweights are the disadvantages that threaten future
generations as it may affect them physically, mentally, and
socially. There are many potential threats to social media.
The researchers specifically chose the link between social
media and the self-esteem and self-confidence of the Grade11 Senior High School students. Upon crafting this study, it
will examine the connection between the socially
constructed beliefs of a person's beauty, worth, and value to
an own person's perception of himself/herself presented in
the online platform, particularly in social media. This
current study focuses to determine the influence and link
between social media with Senior High School students' selfesteem and self-confidence. This current research will focus
on how social media influences oneself in the context of one's
self-esteem and self-confidence, what type of activity
circulating on social media will be the basis of this influence,
and how an individual reacts or responds to this type of
activity in social media that will affect one self-esteem and
self-confidence which will be determined through identifying
its link towards one another. Furthermore, due to quarantine,
many people spend most of their time inside their homes,
minimizing social interaction with other people, which
encourages abnormal social media usage. Thus, this study
could potentially help many people, specifically Senior High
School students and the youth.
IV.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
Every individual has their own belief and perception of
how they view themselves and how they want to appear
towards other people. With the emergence of various
social networking sites (SNS) and social media, people
have developed and created these idealized
representations of one's worth, value, and physical
attributes. With this current study that the researchers aim
to focus on determining the influences and link between
social media with the self-esteem and self-confidence of
senior high school students. Knowing their insights,
opinions, and perceptions towards oneself will be a
significant step in understanding the current issue that the
researchers aim to address, so the researchers will
showcase qualitative research in this study, specified
through a case study to examine carefully and intensively
investigate the different perspective of Senior High
School (SHS) students. To empathize, know the Senior
High School students' narration and experiences, and
delve deeper into the SHS students' perspective, this
research will be using the in-depth interview as its
research design that will take place virtually. The
interview to be held online via Google meet, zoom, or
Facebook messenger depending on the interviewee’s
availability. The participants chosen for the interview will
be from the six sections of the Grade 11 Senior High
School students of the, where two female and one male
from every section: name from section Love, Excellence,
Aspiration, Discipline, Empathy, and Resilience will be
selected. So, a total of 18 students will be interviewed
that fits with the given criteria. The current researchers
choose the following participants because existing
literature suggests that girls are more exposed and
vulnerable to social comparison and idealized
presentation circulating on social media. The impact on
their well-being is high compared to boys (Steinsbekk. et
al., 2020). Prior studies were only limited to the
participants' upon social media's effects on secondary
high school students (Chua & Chang, 2016) and children
and adolescents (Steinsbekk. et al., 2020). So, the
researchers will focus on Senior High School
students. Upon identifying the study participants,
snowball sampling will be used, wherein the researchers
will identify one person from every section that will fit
with the given criteria and that one interviewee will then
be the basis of the next interviewee per section for he/she
will give suggestions on the following target participants
depending on the researchers' qualification of
participants. The researchers will ensure that the
interviewer's response to the interview will be
confidential. The data gathered in the interview will be
analyzed and examined through thematic analysis, mainly
using the inductive approach. The researchers will be
using interview guides for the instrument to be used in
interviewing the selected participants. The queries
presented in the interview are primarily open-ended
subjective and may vary from every person's different
perspectives. The data gathered will then be clustered
depending on its correlativeness and relevance, with the
questions being asked to arrive at fair and appropriate
pieces of information.
V.
RESEARCH SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND SAMPLING
METHOD
Upon
assessing
one's
narration and experiences,
the researchers will use
snowball sampling as its
research method to trace
the designated participants
with their co-participants
help. The researchers will
be interviewing first one
participant from every
section,
then
that
participant
will
recommend
the
next
participant
to
be
interviewed depending on
the researchers' criteria.
Upon selecting the SHS
students that will be
chosen
to
be
the
participants
to
be
interviewed, the following
criteria will be included:
(1) a Grade 11 student
from the University.
(2) he/she must have an
active
social
media
accounts (e.g., Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, etc.),
(3) he/she is also active on
engaging in social media
activities such as posting
selfies, sharing posts, and
commenting on other's
post, (4) he/she must be
willing to share his/her
narrations and experiences
in social media regarding
insecurities, criticisms and
the like. The interview
will take place virtually,
and
no
face-to-face
interaction will occur.
Depending
on
the
participants' convenience
and availability, he/she
will choose on what video
chat app will be used.
VI.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
The researchers will be using the in-depth interview to
gather different insights, experiences, and narrations from
its participants. The interview guide will then be used for
the researchers to ask a further question that is open-ended,
subjective, and may vary from every participant’s narration
and experiences. The data to be gathered will then be
analyzed through thematic analysis, depending on the
interviewee's narrative. Such questions that will be ask in
the interview will range from 5-10 questions, that the first
question will tackle about how often do the Senior High
School students engage on social media. In order to dig
deeper into their experiences, the researchers will then ask
questions concerning the things they observed in social
media which triggers their insecurities and the way they
perceive themselves.
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Interview Guide
1. Rate from 1-5 (1 – sometimes, 5 – frequently), how often do you post pictures of yourself on social media?
2. Rate 1-5, how often do you share posts about your peers?
3. How many hours a day do you spend on social media?
4. What do you like more, having lots of reactors and followers or just posting with a few likes and comments?
5. How do you feel when you see other people's photos and post online?
6. Do you check on other's profiles? For what reason?
7. Do you often receive compliments online?
8. Do you receive negative feedbacks, comments and criticism online? If yes, how do you respond or react to it?