Arianna Klusky Due February 22, 2023 Theory Application 1 (revised) Communication Theory 1. Hypothesis: Frequent exposure to idealized and curated content on social media can lead to negative social comparisons, which, in turn, can contribute to increased levels of depression and anxiety among social media users, specifically teenagers, as predicted by social cognitive theory. 2. Independent Variable: The independent variable in my hypothesis is the frequency of exposure to specific content on social media. Because this is the independent variable, it can be manipulated or measured to study how it affects the dependent variable. 3. Dependent Variable: The dependent variable in my hypothesis would be how frequently users within the targeted age group are posting content on these social media platforms. We can study how the frequency of exposure to certain content (our independent variable) changes this user behavior, either by increasing or decreasing how often teenagers choose to post content of themselves. If it is increased, it could be indicative of a positive effect of social media, increasing confidence and decreasing self-doubt. If decreased, it could indicate a negative self-reflection and a lack of confidence in appearance. Conversely, an increase in posting can also indicate a lack of self-confidence, as the reason for posting content is to receive validation, and a decrease in posting could indicate that a user is comfortable enough to not require such validation. 4. Direction of Association: The direction of association in this hypothesis is positive. 5. Specify the incentive of adopting the behavior perceived by the observer. The incentive of adopting the behavior perceived by the observer is likely to be the desire to fit in or to attain the perceived benefits of the behavior. Social cognitive theory argues that individuals learn from observing and imitating others, and that the likelihood of adopting a behavior is influenced by various factor. These factors include perceived benefits of the behavior, the observer’s confidence/self-efficacy, and the reinforcement and punishment they receive for said behavior. In the context of social media, individuals, specifically teenagers, may observe and imitate others’ behaviors such as posting this idealized content to fit in or gain social approval. This may be done by utilizing editing tools, or by utilizing unhealthy means of idealized body image. Teenagers often perceive that posting such content will lead to increased popularity, status on social media, and validation. This validation can be on social media, among peers at school, or even from family members with high standards. In turn, they initially may believe that presenting this idealized version of themselves can lead to higher self-esteem and overall happiness, which is where the problem lies. Conversely. if teenagers perceive that they are not able to attain to perceived benefits of this behavior, or if they receive potentially negative feedback or lower selfesteem, it is possible that they will be less likely to continue engaging in such behavior. 6. If you had to choose a research method to test this hypothesis, would you use an experiment, survey or content analysis – or some combination? Describe how you would collect data for your study with details directly related to your hypothesis and defend your choices by discussing at least three strengths of the method(s) chosen specific to your study. One way we could ethically test this hypothesis would be through the use of content analysis. To collect data, we can obtain social media data that is publicly available to perform a content analysis on content that users share publicly, eliminating both ethical concerns and the need for consent, while still ensuring users private and identifying information will remain confidential and will not be shared. Using this data, we could analyze the prevalence of idealized content on public accounts, such as pictures that have been edited or manipulated, or posts that provide positive content and messages, such as body positivity. To do this, we could utilize specific coding schemes that are used to study social media effects. One strength of using content analysis to study this hypothesis is that content analysis is objective, which increases the validity of results, especially when using a pre-defined coding scheme and established criteria to identify the themes on public social media accounts. This reduces the risk of bias, helps increase accuracy in findings, and creates findings that are easy to replicate and continually collect over time. Additionally, content analysis provides a large sample size, as we can analyze a large amount of public social media data at once to create an accurate study. Infinite amounts of social media data are generated every second, which allows for a sample size that can be as large as we can physically study. Because we would be performing content analysis on a public set of data, the study could be easily replicated by other researchers on data that is the same or similar, which, over time, helps increase the validity of our findings as a whole, which is another strength of content analysis.
