All for One? One for All?

People often identify with the larger communities they are grouped in on social media, which can cause them to lose a sense of self and thus lead to feelings of isolation and lowered self esteem.

A Blurred Identity

One of the main benefits of social media is the ability to group and communicate with like-minded people. Social media platforms recommend other users/pages that somehow correlate with liked posts, followers/following, content shared, location, etc. Many argue the building of these sub-communities is one of, if not the biggest, perk of social platforms. In all groupings, however, the line between the individual and the group can and does become blurred more easily. The distinction between the self and the whole can fade or disappear altogether leaving its victims lost, confused and therefore at higher risk for showing symptoms of mental illnesses including low self-esteem, lower self-awareness, anxiety, stress, and/or depression.

Two main factors: the comparison game and the ease in erasing.

In his review, Graham Meikle's describes Meikle’s the phenomenon as the building of ‘collective identities’ in the online world. People are grouped by similar interests, backgrounds, ethnicities, etc., which it should be noted happens in natural interactions too, and in either case “have a direct impact of who we are, to our personality and character” (Baccarella). The issue online thus stems from two main factors: the comparison game and the ease in erasing.

Comparison is a normal act. Arguably, comparison is needed merely to get by because, for many, it serves as a type of motivation. In the digital age, though, the comparison game has become vital to the very health of social media platforms themselves, and therefore rates of comparison have increased drastically with the rise of social media platforms. One study, in fact, examined this idea by monitoring how preadolescent screen time correlated with their mental health/overall wellbeing. The study found "Preadolescents, whose parents reported greater control over their child’s time on social media, reported better mental health... [as] preadolescents spending less time browsing and making fewer appearance comparisons on social media" (Fardouly 2018). Comparisons and mental health, consequently, are suspected to be negatively correlated.

What's more, in online groups where comparisons are not only made an unseemly amount given the format of the platforms themselves, but also shape a user's 'social identity'. It becomes increasingly difficult to build profiles that are true reflections of an individual and not merely the community they are grouped in online. The natural emersion of an individual's true personality with their ‘social identity’ can then lead to confusion, isolation, low self-esteem, anxiety, and/or depression. Another piece published by The Journal of Adolescence describes the concept: "In particular, social comparison can provide a vital tool for identity development by fostering adolescents' knowledge of themselves, but it can also undermine adolescents' sense of self-adequacy, particularly as they evaluate themselves relative to their peers' positive self-presentation on social media.” (Yang et. al). Where, again, the ease in losing oneself in the online world, is at least in part, attributable to the comparison game.

The other factor playing into the blurring identities online is the growing ease in erasing distinguishability. Nearly all social media platforms grant users the capability to erase anything they may chose a comment, post, message - anything that in their real-life equivalents would make an individual stand out (for better or for worse) - can disappear at the click of a button. Paired with comparison to other profiles/users, therefore, it becomes quite easy for a user adjust to better fit the mold of the group they are in - deleting, editing, and staging until perhaps the user completely loses sight of oneself in attempt to 'fit in' online.

So What?

We want communities of marked individuals where unique perspectives offer new ideas to help society, as a whole, grow. By learning the risks involved with creating increasingly popular virtual communities, platforms and users themselves can work to create more reflective/unique profiles allowing them to maintain a sense of self on and off line. In maintaining a sense of self online (or by simply minimizing the reliance on online social communities), an individual can lessen their susceptibility to all the associated risks with 'losing themselves' including low self esteem, and/or low self-adequacy and the mental health illness like anxiety and depression that may follow.

Although some argue the communities forged on social platforms are both meaningful and helpful in finding oneself as opposed to losing it, merely given the amount of people on social platforms and the little amount of research on their long term effects given their recency, it is difficult if not impossible to say that all communities online are meaningful/helpful ones. According to Pew Research as of February 2019, the majority of US adults had at least one form of social media was 72%. Moreover, the likelihood of all or even simply the majority of social media users going online with high conscientiousness is low (Pew Research). Several users can and have testified how challenging it is to remember social media is not a true representation of one's life. Therefore, unless the individual is “highly conscientious” one's susceptibility to blurring their identity with the collective remains quite high. Although there are more potential solutions to this particular issue online - for example, creating platforms formatted to encourage individuality by grouping people of unlike interests - the simplest, and most reliable remains clear: limiting the use of social media platforms.