Name Ammara Abid

Roll # 19101520-58
Semester 6th
Section B
Department Psychology
Course Title Personality Theories
Submitted To Ma’am Arifa
QUESTION: 1

How Does Social Media Influence Our Personality.

What Is Personality Development?

Personality development refers to the process by which the organized thought and
behavior patterns that make up a person’s unique personality emerge over time.
Many factors influence personality, including genetics and environment, how we
were parented, and societal variables.

Personality and the Social Media

Our increasing, almost constant use of the various social media to interact with
other people in a virtual reality rather than in person has led to a great deal of
recent research which attempts to relate our personalities to the online world in
which we now live. There are at least three ways in which social media and
personality may interact to affect one another, leading to three questions to which
psychologists are increasingly seeking.

The public face we display to the people around us. Increasingly, many of us
display another face, not in person, but through the Internet on social networking
Web sites such as Facebook. As a result, another way of defining our personality
may include how others see us online.

But are they seeing us as we really are, or are we creating online some idealized
self-image that we want to display to other people? Are we pretending to be
someone we are not, or are we conveying an accurate description of our
personality? Some research suggests that most people are honest about their online
faces. Studies conducted in the United States and in Germany found that social
networking sites do convey accurate images or impressions of the personality
profiles we offer. The researchers concluded that depictions of personalities
presented online are at least as accurate as those conveyed in face-to-face
interactions (Gosling, Gaddis, & Vazire,2007; Back et al., 2010).
A more recent large-scale study in Germany, however, found that many people
have a tendency to present themselves online as being much more emotionally
stable than they really are (Blumer & Doring, 2012).

Other later studies have found that those who are introverted, neurotic, lonely, and
socially awkward find it easier to express their true selves (their real personalities)
online instead of in person (Marriott & Buchanan,2014).

It has also been found that those who feel they are able to express their true selves
are more active on Facebook and other social media sites than those who do not
feel that way about themselves (Seidman, 2014).

And what about selfies, those photos we take of ourselves? How accurate are they
in howing our true selves? Or are they merely posing and posturing for effect, to
impress others—to make our own little “reality shows?” Research has found that
more women than men send selfies and that excessive use of them can make the
sender less likeable and even reduce the intimacy or closeness of friendships.

They can even reinforce the idea that how people look is more important than how
they actually behave in real life toward their friends (Drexler, 2013; Rutledge,
2013).

With people we have known for a while, with whom we feel secure, and who
represent no threat, we may be less likely to pretend to be something we are not.
Perhaps the major difference with social networking sites is that there is a much
wider and more instantly reachable audience than in our everyday offline lives. In
addition, we now know that what we post about ourselves can also have great
potential consequences to our careers and future when prospective employers find
“inappropriate content” such as drunkenness, sexual display, and use of profanity
on a candidate’s social media sites. One study found that evaluations of Facebook
pages containing negative content resulted in false perceptions of that person’s
personality. Sites of those with no inappropriate displays resulted in more accurate
evaluations of the person’s personality, which, in the real world, can make the
difference between being hired for a job or accepted by a graduate school
(Goodman, Smith, Ivancevich,& Lundberg, 2014).

How Does Social Media Influence Our Personality :

Psychologists have found that the use of online social networking sites like
Facebook can both shape and reflect our personalities. One study of adolescents in
China aged 13 to 18 found that excessive time spent using the Internet resulted in
significant levels of anxiety and depression when compared to teenagers who spent
considerably less time online (Lam & Peng, 2010).

Other research found that high levels of social media use can reduce psychological
well-being (how happy we feel) and decrease the quality of relationships with
friends and romantic partners (Blais, Craig, Pepler, & Connolly, 2008;
Huang,2010a; Kross et al., 2013).

An online survey of college students in the United States showed that those who
spent time talking with their parents on the telephone had more satisfying personal
and supportive relationships with them than students who kept in touch with the
parents through social networking sites. In addition, college students who
communicated with their parents on social networking sites reported greater
loneliness, anxiety, and conflict in their relationships with their parents (Gentzler,
Oberhauser, Westerman, &Nadorff, 2011).

Studies conducted in such diverse countries as the Netherlands, Serbia, , and

Korea have demonstrated that those who reported excessive use of social media
tend to be more lonely, introverted, and low in self-esteem than those who use it
less (Baek, Bae, & Jang, 2013; Milosevic-Dordevic & Zezelj, 2013;
Muusses,Finkenauer, Kerkhof, & Billedo, 2014; Yao & Zhong, 2014).

THE FACTORS WHICH HAVE AN IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT:

Todays busy generation and no time to reflect on its own self. They get carried
away by whatever they see on the internet. They don’t give it a thought about the
quality of the change or the impact the change will have on them. They just want to
follow the trends at any cost. Due to this they are losing their own charm and they
are acquiring an unreal self, that is intolerant, very sensitive, arrogant and this is
also leading to the cultural downfall.
There are certain main factors that impacts on the adolescent behaviour.

FACTOR1: PROMOTING OF SEEKING BEHAVIOUR:-

It must be noted that the main reason behind social networking sites is usually to
extend the actual self out to the world and reach out to the society and not to
promote anonymity. Another factor hidden behind this vast use and obsession with
social networking is to seek approval of others and gain popularity. Many users of
social media are obsessed with constant updating and sharing in order to gain more
likes and popularity among friends. Not getting the expected “friends” can result in
low self-esteem.

FACTOR2: INCREASING DEPRESSING AND ANXIETY:-

It has been found that increasing use of social media also leads to depression,
anxiety, and stress in adolescents . A number of studies have found a correlation
between heavy use of FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and emotional
distress. The facebook and the other such sites help the teenager to hid his or her
identity and fool their own self by posting photoshoped pictures and fake visited
places. They can write anything without showing their original self. Once the
original self is discovered then there is lot of disappointment which leads to
sadness and remose. Which results in depression and anxiety.

FACTOR3: UNREAL STANDARDS FOR APPEARANCE:-

The concept of social media popularity is well understood by anyone who uses
social networking sites and thus, to gain popularity, people may go out of their way
to impress others. Adolescents are increasingly becoming materialists and fake on
their social networking site. For instance, they want to develop an image on line
the image may be beautiful, thoughtful, rich, etc which can attract the public and
like to the profile of the owner. The adolescence try to find the best profile picture,
write the cool quotes which describes a fake personality .
FACTOR4: CULTURE OF POPULARITY:-

Social networking sites have been a popular Internet trend for the past many years.
People are constantly in touch with their friends through social media and it is the
dominant form of communication. One major part of social networking sites is of
profiles. Individuals spend much time creating profiles that are “cool” to maintain a
certain social standard. The teen are ready to post any kinds of pictures to gain
popularity. Their day ends with the amount of likes and comments. It’s the most
important thing in their life. There are teens who have committed suicides on the
same reasons.

Spending too much time online can also lead to addiction, which can be just as
obsessive and excessive as addiction to alcohol, drugs, or gambling. Excessive
online use has also been shown to change portions of the brain that are linked to
depression and increased irritability (Mosher, 2011).

The internet and social media are now deeply embedded in our everyday life as
well as our daily routines. Today, social media is affecting our social interactions
and personality development more than ever. Today’s adolescents, more than
previous generations, are dependent on social media because they were born at the
time social media was reaching its peak.

In recent years, more than 1.5 billion people are a part of the social media site
Facebook(Brailovskaia and Margraf).

According to Sultan Alzahrani, a computer engineer in Science and Technology,

and Christian Bach, an assistant professor and Biomedical Engineer in Technology
Management, child and adolescent personality development is becoming more
dependent on their interaction and involvement…show more content…

It is important to see the individual and personal effects social media has on all
people and personality development.

According to Julia Levitan, a student and researcher at the University of

Pennsylvania, social media has monumentally affected culture and society as a
whole as well as human interactions. The study done by Levitan shows that the big
five personality traits, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,agreeableness,
and neuroticism, positively correlates with social media involvement. Social media
has gradually become a dominant factor in determining our ability to socially
interact.

According to Jean Twenge, an author of more than 130 scientific publications

and an American psychologist researcher on generational differences including
work and differences, kids are less likely to participate in collective activities and
interactions because of their involvement in social media. Social network sites are
becoming an influential force in determining our social skills and overall tendency
to interact with others. Recent studies have shown that 62% of people observed on
a college campus use their electronics in the presence of others (Emily Drago).
This information truly emphasizes that social media has gradually become a
problem known across the globe.