Instagram is a free photo and video-sharing social networking service and application that is owned by Facebook and was created in 2010. This app allows its users to edit and upload photos and videos to the app directly from your smartphone. There is a lot of research has been done to see the links between social media sites like Instagram and self-esteem. Social media posts can set unrealistic expectations for its users though. The effects of Instagram usage can be either positive or negative, depending on the personality traits of the person who is using the site. A study was conducted by Paramboukis, Skues, and Wise (2016) to see if there was a relationship between narcissism, self-esteem and Instagram use. Narcissism is defined as excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one’s physical appearance. What this study found was that there was significant positive relationship between narcissism scores and self-esteem scores. This is to be expected, as narcissists have a grandiose sense of self-importance. Narcissists also usually feel a great sense of superiority, and as such, they crave constant recognition. Through social media applications like Instagram they can acquire this constant applause through likes or positive comments on their Instagram pictures. Instagram does not specifically have a dislike button, so it makes it easier for narcissist to use this app to help boost their self-esteem. Both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are differently related to self-esteem. The study found that vulnerable narcissism was positively correlated with self-esteem whereas grandiose narcissism was positively correlated with self-esteem but at a lower level. (Parambukois, Skues, & Wise 2016) .There was also a positive association between the use of social networks and the narcissism scales however there was a negative correlation between use of social networks and the self-esteem scale showing that although narcissists are more likely to use these social networks the average person does not benefit in the same way that they do in regards to self-esteem.
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Ahadzadeh, Sharif and Ong (2017) looked at the relationship of one’s self schema and Instagram use. Self-schema is defined as a long lasting and stable set of memories that summarize a person’s beliefs, experiences and generalizations about the self in specific behavioral domains. Self-discrepancy theory says that people compare themselves to internalized standards that are called “self-guides”. Both self-schema and self-discrepancy have an influence on Instagram use (Ahadzadeh, Sharif, Ong 2017). This same study hypothesized that people who have high self-esteem would be less likely to be influenced by self-schema and would have reduced level of self-discrepancy meaning higher self-esteem were more likely to feel they met their “ideal” selves. Body image was looked at by Ahadzadeh and associates (2017) to see if there was an effect on self-esteem in an Instagram setting with self-schema and self-discrepancy and self-esteem moderating the effect. The results from the study showed that there was significant negative total effect with Instagram usage and body image (Ahadzadeh, Sharif, & Ong 2017). It was also found is that there was an indirect effect through self-schema and self-discrepancy was negative as well. The study discussed that self-esteem weakens the effect of Instagram usage on self-schema. Instagram usage is higher for individuals who have a lower self-esteem. The influence of Instagram photo exposure on body image is moderated through self-esteem. It is then mediated by appearance self-schema and by appearance self-discrepancy. Overall self-esteem is positively correlated with overall Instagram use.
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