Social Media Addiction and Self-esteem among University Students

Description

Page: 157-162

Vaishnavi¹, Swapnil Sinha², Sakchham Shukla³, and Prakriti Singh⁴ (Department of Psychology, University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh^1,2,4 and Department of Psychology, National Post Graduate College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh³)

Social media addiction is adversely impacting Self-Esteem by fostering comparison and validation-seeking behavior, ultimately diminishing overall well-being. Social media’s impact on Self-Esteem varies, with some studies linking heavy use to lower self-esteem, while others show minimal or positive effects, influenced by factors like social comparisons and usage patterns. This research examines how social media addiction affects the self-esteem of university students using a quantitative correlational design. A total of 100 participants including 33 males, and 66 females data were collected via an online survey using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and the Social Media Addiction Scale Student Form (Sahin, 2018). The hypotheses suggest that male university students will show more Social Media Addiction and higher Self-Esteem than female students and that there will be a negative relationship between Social Media Addiction and Self-Esteem. The results showed no significant gender difference in Social Media Addiction (t = 0.238, p = 1.671) or Self-Esteem (M = 18.21 for males, M = 18.72 for females, t = 0.32, p > 0.05), rejecting the hypothesis that males have higher addiction or Self-Esteem. A moderate negative correlation (r = -0.425) between Social Media Addiction and Self-Esteem was found, supporting the hypothesis.