Keep the negativity in check, on Facebook

It’s a popularly held belief that those with low self-esteem thrive on social networking platforms. As it provides them with a virtual platform to easily interact with people, something, which they may find difficult to do in face-to-face situations. However, a study conducted by Amanda Forest, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo, along with her advisor, Joanne Wood, has revealed that this can, in fact make them less likeable.

Facebook is ubiquitous enough to turn to in an emergency

Their findings confirmed the notion that those with low self-esteem view social networking platforms, like Facebook as an opportunity to interact with others and thus reduce the risk of awkward social situations. They also asked subjects about their last ten status updates, which were then rated for their likeability by other Facebook users. They found that those with low self-esteem tended to have more negative status updates, which were rated least likeable.   

This goes on to prove that posting negative updates is not of too much help to them and in the process they are making themselves less likeable. Also, Amanda observes that when speaking to somebody in person, you get some indication as to whether they don’t like what you are saying or are sick of hearing negativity. On the other hand she says, when it comes to Facebook, people tend to keep their reactions to themselves.    

Further, they also discovered that if a person with low-self esteem were to post a positive status update then they will receive more responses from their friends. While on the other hand if a person with high self-esteem were to post a negative update then they will receive more response form their friends. This they concluded could be because of the rarity of such occurrences. The study will be published in the Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.