The Impact Of Social Network Sites Use On Adolescents' Self-evaluation

Internet which has created a cyberspace,the "third space" between physical space and spiritual space,may deconstruct the way human think and behavior(Zhou&Liu,2016;Loh&Kanai,2015).Social networking services as one of the greatest inventions in the Internet times,made a profound impact on human's self-awareness,interactions and relational schema.Social tools influenced our mind about me,and you,and them as well as the relationship itself.Some people said,social network site is a platform xwhere we "construct ourselves" and "peep at others"(Gosling&Mason,2015;Subrahmanyam&Smahel,2011).At the same time,researches on how social network site use(SNS use)affect adolescents' psychosocial adaptation and self development,has become a frontier and hot area of cyberpsychology.Whether SNS use influences self-evaluation,especially for adolescents?If do,how dose SNS use influences self-evaluation?Which way people use SNS and what they do on SNS influences self-evaluation?And is there any difference between the short-term and long-term that SNS influences self-evaluation?Base on the background,from the perspective of social comparison theory,this dissertation examined those issues in 3 studies using longitudinal and cross-sectional questionnaire and experimental methods,which distinguish general SNS use,passive and active SNS use,positive and honest self-presentation.In study 1,we examined the causal relationship between SNS use and self-evaluation,through a longitudinal tracking survey of 243 junior high school students in half a year who were 11-15 years old and from grade one and two.Results showed that:(1)high school students' SNS use intensity presented a significant growth within half a year;however,their physical self-evaluation and social self-evaluation were relatively stable and did not show any developmental differences within half a year.(2)SNS use was significantly positively related to social self-evaluation,that the higher SNS use intensity was,the higher social self-evaluation was;but SNS use was not significantly or stably associated with physical self-evaluation.(3)Cross-lagged analysis indicated that SNS use influenced social self-evaluation.In conclusion,results confirmed that SNS use causally influenced social self-evaluation and there was no causal relationship between SNS use and physical self-evaluation.In study 2,we applied 3 empirical research to examine how SNS use influence self-evaluation from the perspective of social comparison theory.Specifically,for research 1,questionnaire survey was used among 1261 middle school students and college students.Results showed that SNS use intensity was significantly positively related with social self-evaluation;and upward social comparison played a partial mediating role between SNS use intensity and social self-evaluation.For research 2,questionnaire survey was used among 535 college students.Results showed that active SNS use was significantly positively related with social self-evaluation,while passive SNS use was significantly negatively related with social self-evaluation;and upward social comparison played a partial mediating role between active/passive SNS use and social self-evaluation.For research 3,questionnaire survey was used among 485 college students.Results showed that positive self-presentation was significantly positively related with social self-evaluation,honest self-presentation was also significantly positively related with social self-evaluation;and upward social comparison played a partial mediating role between positive/honest self-presentation and social self-evaluation.In summary,these 3 research made a consistent conclusion that upward social comparison played a partial mediating role between SNS use and social self-evaluation,and it was a long-term effect.In study 3,we applied 2 behavioral experiments to examine whether there was a short-term effect that SNS use influenced self-evaluation via upward social comparison.Specifically,in experiment 1,88 college students who had been using SNS as subjects were randomly assigned to two kinds of experimental conditions that use SNS and do not use SNS.Results showed that,compared to the control group subjects who did not use SNS,experimental group subjects who used SNS assessed significantly higher upward social comparison and social self-evaluation;however,upward social comparison did not play a mediating role between SNS use and social self-evaluation.In experiment 2,137 college students who had been using SNS as subjects were randomly assigned to two kinds of experimental conditions that actively use SNS and passively use SNS.Results showed that,compared to the control group subjects who did not use SNS,subjects who actively or passively used SNS assessed significantly higher upward social comparison and social self-evaluation;but there was no differences between subjects who actively used SNS and subjects who passively used SNS in upward social comparison and social self-evaluation;and upward social comparison did not play a mediating role between active/passive SNS use and social self-evaluation.In summary,these 2 experiments made a consistent conclusion that SNS use impacted upward social comparison and social self-evaluation in short-term effect,but there was no short-term effect that SNS use influenced self-evaluation via upward social comparison.To sum up,for those 3 studies of this dissertation,study 1 examined the causal relationship between SNS use and self-evaluation;and study 2 examined how SNS use influenced self-evaluation from the perspective of social comparison theory;further,study 3 examined how SNS use influenced self-evaluation in experimental lab situation,and whether upward social comparison played a mediating in short-term effect.These 3 studies got some valuable conclusions:(1)There was a causal relationship between SNS use and self-evaluation that SNS use significantly positively influenced adolescents' social self-evaluation but not physical self-evaluation;(2)In long-term effect situation,SNS use(including SNS use intensity,active SNS use,positive/honest self-presentation)not only directly influenced social self-evaluation,but also indirectly influenced social self-evaluation via upward social comparison;(3)In short-term effect situation,SNS use significantly positively impacted upward social comparison and social self-evaluation,but upward social comparison did not play a mediating role between SNS use and social self-evaluation.