The last decade has been a period of incredible growth for social media, and in particular Facebook. The fact that the site even surpassed Google and is the largest in US traffic shows that Facebook has become an integral part of how people connect and communicate with the world around them.
Το Facebook επιτρέπει στους εγγεγραμμένους users να δημιουργήσουν προφίλ, να ανεβάσουν φωτογραφίες και βίντεο, να στείλουν μηνύματα και – πάνω από όλα – να κρατήσουν επαφή με τους φίλους, την οικογένεια και τους συναδέλφους τους. Ωστόσο, αυτή η ικανότητα του Facebook να κρατάει τους ανθρώπους συνδεδεμένους είναι μόνο ένας από τους λόγους για την τεράστια επιτυχία του.
The truth is that Facebook allows us to connect not only to their loved ones but also to our fundamental human needs. In the same way that grocery stores meet our nutritional needs, Facebook has become a daily destination for millions of people because of its ability to meet our needs for psychological satisfaction.
Self esteem
Self-esteem is considered to be one of the determining factors that shape our mental wellbeing. Self esteem is to a large extent a model that organizes information about ourselves and reflects that we think, care and spend our time and our energy in it.
If, for example, being an "athlete" is not an important aspect of your shape, then reaching the finish line last or last will not affect your self-esteem. However, being "smart" is an important aspect of your self-esteem, and writing low on exams will negatively affect your self-esteem.
Our Facebook profile emits small reflections of our own shapes. In addition to our appearance, it includes information about our hobbies, the level of education, the number of our friends, what we are interested in, and so on.
Thus, Facebook can subconsciously increase our self-esteem, giving us the opportunity to reconstruct and control the way we want to present ourselves. In addition, Facebook allows us to block any "trolls" whose insults and bad comments threaten our self-confidence.
Managing impressions
Διαχείριση της εντύπωσης είναι η procedure μέσω της οποίας οι άνθρωποι προσπαθούν να επηρεάσουν την αντίληψη των άλλων για την εικόνα τους και επιτυγχάνεται με τη ρύθμιση και τον έλεγχο των πληροφοριών κατά τη διάρκεια της κοινωνικής αλληλεπίδρασης. Θεωρείται βασικό δομικό συστατικό στις διαπροσωπικές επικοινωνίες, και στοχεύει στην ενίσχυση των επιθυμητών χαρακτηριστικών.
Facebook, allows the user to perform a great deal of impression management.
First of all, unlike face-to-face conversations, Facebook gives users as much time as they need to prepare a thoughtful or witty response. In addition, the effect of non-verbal behavior does not exist online.
So, we have developed a series of direct and indirect signals to make impressions on other Facebook users.
The clear signalare measurable, such as number of friends, perceived quality of friends, and level of education. Implicit signals are the frequent changes of the relationship status (single-single, married-married, etc.) which can be associated with instability, the frequent changes in the profile picture and posts that may indicate an extroverted tendency, the frequent " likes' on others' content that may indicate efforts to gain favor.
In addition, the decision not to share information about the status of his relationship and the type of his interests reveals even more about the user than the information he shares!
A study by 2004 by Samuel D. Gosling and Simine Vazire of the University of Texas found that Facebook profiles provide the same observer information to the observer as his bedroom or office provides. The original interpretation of the personality of the user is accurate in most cases, and is revealed within the first few minutes of the interaction.
Thus, Facebook can affect our self-esteem by giving us the opportunity to control the way we present ourselves through the process of managing impressions - which can affect the way others see us, but most importantly, this can affect the way we perceive ourselves.
We have spent a lot of time and effort on this self-adaptation, because at a subconscious level, we discover a more positive version of ourselves. This is reflected by the composition of carefully selected elements of our profile.
We present our most attractive photos, the list of your favorites Movies, τη μουσική και τα βιβλία που πιστεύουμε ότι θα εντυπωσιάσουν τους άλλους, και να στέλνουμε αιτήματα φιλίας όχι μόνο στους φίλους και την οικογένειά μας, αλλά και σε ανθρώπους που σεβόμαστε και θέλουμε να συνδεθούμε.
The theory of Self-perception (SPT) argues that people develop an attitude by observing their behavior and then drawing conclusions about what is responsible for that behavior. Thus, the person interprets his obvious behaviors rationally, in the same way that he tries to explain the behaviors of others.
This helps to explain how a Facebook user's profile can promote a positive self-perception and contributes to our mental wellbeing.
The Facebook allows our extrovert features
Facebook provides extroverts with an immediate outlet for their needs and obsessions. Extroverts have been shown to update their profile photos, status and information about themselves much more often than other users do. Thus, Facebook allows them to act according to their secret desires without the fear of being perceived as arrogant or narcissistic.
Imagine asking someone to see their photos from a social gathering. It can be considered quite "strange" while on Facebook, it is considered completely normal.
Summary
Facebook has become a habit - a routine of a behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to happen unconsciously. The formation of every habit we adopt is triggered by a conscious or unconscious reward, which helps our brain decide if it is worth remembering a particular action.
You could initially sign up with Facebook to connect with our friends, but without realizing it, the website has become an addictive habit because it provides subconscious psychological rewards. Over time, this is becoming more and more automatic and imprinted on our nervous ways.
Dr Liraz Margalit is a ClickTale Psychologist and the article was published by TNW.
