Anyone with a Facebook account knows there’s nothing like a late night tour of your friends’ seemingly perfect lives to shatter your confidence. Now a recent study has confirmed that for people struggling with low self-esteem, Facebook is bad news. Researchers collected recent status updates from undergraduate volunteers who had also completed a self-esteem survey. The volunteers in the low self-esteem group often posted about negative feelings and events, creating a sort of Debbie Downer feedback loop that made others hesitant to interact with them. People with healthy self-esteem were more likely to post about positive events and feeling of gratitude, but researchers say Facebook can pose a danger to the self-esteem of both groups by inviting us to compare various aspects of our social lives with others. With that in mind, I’m off to peruse my friends’ photo albums and have a good cry. [NPR]
