Esteem issues determine how people put their best Facebook forward

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - How social media users create and monitor their online personas may hint at their feelings of self-esteem and self-determination, according to an international team of researchers. "The types of actions users take and the kinds of information they are adding to their Facebook walls and profiles are a refection of their identities," said S. Shyam Sundar , Distinguished Professor of and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory , Penn State. "You are your Facebook, basically, and despite all its socialness , Facebook is a deeply personal medium." People with lower self-esteem tend to be much more concerned with what others post about them on Facebook, while users with higher self-esteem spend more effort on adding information to their personal profiles on the social network, said Sundar. The researchers, who report their findings today (Sept. 5) at INTERACT 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa, said that people with both high and low self-esteem spend time crafting their online personas on Facebook, but choose different paths in that construction. Individuals with higher self-esteem have a greater sense of agency and spend more time adding information about their family, education and work experience to their profiles, according to the researchers. Users who have lower self-esteem continuously monitor their wall and delete unwanted posts from other users, according to the researchers.