\u201cPrevious research has demonstrated that browsing one’s own Facebook profile is a self-affirming activity, in the sense that it replenishes feelings of self-worth and self-integrity<\/strong>,\u201d explains Toma. \u201cThis is the case because Facebook profiles represent users as embedded in a network of meaningful relationships, and highlight the positive aspects of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n So scrolling through one\u2019s own Facebook profile is like looking in a mirror that reflects the positive parts of oneself<\/strong>. In this study, Toma researched how looking at your own Facebook representation affects how you feel about yourself, and how that affects your performance in a simple cognitive task. This is important because feelings more positive about oneself may lead to less motivation to perform well on some types of tasks.<\/p>\n Toma found that after browsing their own Facebook profiles for 5 minutes, users did indeed report increased self-esteem. Then, users were asked to perform a cognitive task such as counting down from a large number by intervals of 7 as quickly and accurately as possible, for 2 minutes<\/strong>. In addition to elevated self-esteem, users attempted to answer fewer questions than those in a control group.<\/p>\n \u201cThis suggests that Facebook profile exposure reduces users’ motivation to perform well in a cognitive task, but not their ability to do so<\/strong>,\u201d says Toma. \u201cThis pattern of results is consistent with self-affirmation theory, which claims that when people’s self-worth is secured, they no longer need to engage in additional activities to increase self-worth. In this case, performing well in a cognitive task could have been such an activity.\u201d<\/p>\n Toma suggests that \u201cMore research is necessary to investigate whether Facebook profile browsing negatively affects more complex cognitive tasks, as well as tasks with real-world implications (e.g., grades).\u201d But this particular study indicates that there are both positive and negative effects of Facebook profile self-presentation<\/strong>. On the positive side, it increases self esteem. But on the negative side, browsing one\u2019s Facebook profile may in fact decrease one\u2019s motivation to perform in a cognitive task.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To get more information on this study, including how its results were calculated and determined visit \u2013 http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/15213269.2012.762189<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Taylor & Francis press release via AlphaGalileo: In a recent study by Routledge Journal\u2019s Media Psychology, entitled \u201cFeeling better but doing worse: Effects of Facebook self-presentation on implicit… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[18,165,12,167,166,186],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13744"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13868,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13744\/revisions\/13868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"tablet](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/tablet_computer.jpg\")
In a recent study by Routledge Journal\u2019s Media Psychology, entitled \u201cFeeling better but doing worse: Effects of Facebook self-presentation on implicit self esteem and cognitive task performance,\u201d author Catalina Toma Ph.D. uses self-affirmation theory to make predictions about the effect of Facebook profile self-presentation on two psychological outcomes: users’ self-esteem and performance on a cognitive task<\/strong>.<\/p>\n