October 9, 2023

World Mental Health Day is commemorated annually on the 10^th of October to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilise efforts that support mental health. In the digital age, it is undeniable that social media shapes everyday life and therefore influences mental health outcomes, both positive and negative. However, there is still some contention as to which intermediate effects of social media usage are the most significant in influencing mental health.

In ‘The Effects of Instagram Use, Social Comparison, and Self-Esteem on Social Anxiety: A Survey Study in Singapore’ (Social Media + Society, 2020), Assistant Professor Shaohai Jiang (NUS Communications and New Media) and Ms Annabel Ngien (NUS Communications and New Media) investigate the different effects of Instagram use on individuals’ social anxiety. Social anxiety can be framed as one’s state of avoiding social interactions and appearing inhibited in such interactions with other people. This can be linked to Instagram use since the latter often entails managing a large network of social media friends and engaging with interactive media.

The researchers found that Instagram use indirectly increased social anxiety through influencing social comparison and self-esteem. More frequent Instagram use was associated with a higher level of social comparison, because social media enables users to get exposure to information about other people’s lives, including people they do not know personally such as influencers and celebrities. As a photo and video-sharing platform that provides filters to edit and enhance photos, Instagram also offers abundant opportunities for self-presentation. This may compel users to selectively present a more ideal image.

Subsequently, social comparison was found to significantly decrease self-esteem. This occurs because social comparison (via social media usage and interactions) increases awareness of certain salient norms. When users perceive that they are different from the norms, they are likely to negatively evaluate themselves, adversely affecting their self-esteem.

Finally, lower self-esteem was linked with greater social anxiety. One’s perceived inferiority may prompt negative navigation and interpretation of reactions from social networks, and such perceived disapproving responses thus increase social anxiety.

In summary, the effect of Instagram use on social anxiety was completely mediated by social comparison and self-esteem. The finding that social comparison is a key step in the process linking Instagram use and social anxiety is particularly important to the context of Singapore, because Singaporean culture has a strong focus on material life and peer comparison that is rooted in collectivism.

As such, the researchers propose four initiatives that would reduce social comparison and improve self-esteem, thereby alleviating social anxiety. Social media users could use cognitive reframing strategies to avoid social comparison and improve their own self-esteem. Meanwhile, health educators and promoters could implement more targeted health education programmes to strengthen people’s sense of self-acceptance. Health communicators could also create campaigns to increase people’s self-esteem in the digital era, via messages of body positivity and self-love. Lastly, school educators could help guide the appropriate use of Instagram to enhance students’ emotional health.

Read the article here.

Photo: ‘Two ladies using their smartphones’ by Kelman Chiang from SRN’s SG Photobank