This is an interesting study. Sky News published a release the other day “Self-affirmation underlies Facebook use” that reveals Social Networking sites can reduce a person’s ambitions, based on a research conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Most have a very large audience of friends and they selectively present the best version of self, but they do so in an accurate manner,
Assistant Professor Catalina Toma, who led the team, told ABC News. She added:
Facebook gives you a real good image of yourself, but you then don’t have to look for that in other ways.
Your motivation to perform well might be reduced because you already feel really good.
According to the study, profiles are
Self affirming in the sense of satisfying users’ need for self-worth and self-integrity
Facebook users gravitate toward their online profiles after receiving a blow to the ego, in an unconscious effort to repair their perceptions of self-worth.
These findings were published in an issue of the Journal of Media Psychology. According to the information shared, the study employed a widely-used, but a controversial Implicit Association Test, that requires participants to make snap word-based associations. Such a test reveals personal truths, and the test-takers may not even be aware of it on a conscious level.