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Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors

Social media platforms have provided human beings with unprecedented ways to virtually connect with one another, creating a novel and complex arena for psychological research. Indeed, a growing body of research has uncovered links between social media use and various aspects of health and wellbeing....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lopez, Richard B., Polletta, Isabel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8424035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34512468
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.711447
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author Lopez, Richard B.
Polletta, Isabel
author_facet Lopez, Richard B.
Polletta, Isabel
author_sort Lopez, Richard B.
collection PubMed
description Social media platforms have provided human beings with unprecedented ways to virtually connect with one another, creating a novel and complex arena for psychological research. Indeed, a growing body of research has uncovered links between social media use and various aspects of health and wellbeing. However, relatively little work has examined factors that characterize how people experience and regulate their online selves on particular platforms. In the present study, we recruited a large sample of active Instagram users (N = 247; ages 18–58) to complete a questionnaire battery that included measures of participants' social anxiety, their sense of self-worth tied to Instagram use, and specific content control behaviors on the Instagram platform (e.g., editing captions, disabling comments, etc.). Results indicated that participants with higher levels of social anxiety tended to have greater Instagram contingent self-worth, and this was then associated with some content control behaviors, including editing captions and photos and videos when sharing posts. These findings suggest that those who are more socially anxious interact with Instagram differently, and this may arise from self-worth that is wedded to their experiences on the platform. Overall, this work adds to a growing body of research highlighting the benefits and risks of social media use on psychological health.
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spelling pubmed-84240352021-09-09 Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors Lopez, Richard B. Polletta, Isabel Front Psychol Psychology Social media platforms have provided human beings with unprecedented ways to virtually connect with one another, creating a novel and complex arena for psychological research. Indeed, a growing body of research has uncovered links between social media use and various aspects of health and wellbeing. However, relatively little work has examined factors that characterize how people experience and regulate their online selves on particular platforms. In the present study, we recruited a large sample of active Instagram users (N = 247; ages 18–58) to complete a questionnaire battery that included measures of participants' social anxiety, their sense of self-worth tied to Instagram use, and specific content control behaviors on the Instagram platform (e.g., editing captions, disabling comments, etc.). Results indicated that participants with higher levels of social anxiety tended to have greater Instagram contingent self-worth, and this was then associated with some content control behaviors, including editing captions and photos and videos when sharing posts. These findings suggest that those who are more socially anxious interact with Instagram differently, and this may arise from self-worth that is wedded to their experiences on the platform. Overall, this work adds to a growing body of research highlighting the benefits and risks of social media use on psychological health. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8424035/ /pubmed/34512468 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.711447 Text en Copyright © 2021 Lopez and Polletta. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Lopez, Richard B.
Polletta, Isabel
Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors
title Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors
title_full Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors
title_fullStr Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors
title_full_unstemmed Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors
title_short Regulating Self-Image on Instagram: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-Worth, and Content Control Behaviors
title_sort regulating self-image on instagram: links between social anxiety, instagram contingent self-worth, and content control behaviors
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8424035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34512468
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.711447
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