Social Comparison Theory Essay

Since the Bulletin Board System there has been hundreds, and counting, of social networks created: most notably Twitter, Facebook, Kik, Snapchat, and Instagram. Today there are just over 3 billion active Internet users (45% of the world’s internet users), 2.1 billion of those people have social media accounts (Jeffbullas.com). People use social media for many numerous reasons. Most use social media to stay close to relatives and maintain social ties. Some of people’s most essential daily needs are accounted for by social media: whether it be interacting with friends or coworkers, following politics, or following the latest fashion trend set by the Kardashian

Social media platforms popped up in the 2000s, and since have exploded into massive online worlds for people to share their lives. For many, social media has become a way for people to connect with friends and family while actually being disconnected.

Social media can be a form of communication. Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Social media is about conversations, community, connecting with the audience and building relationships. It is not just a broadcast channel or a sales and marketing tool. There blogs, blogs are platforms for casual dialogue and discussions on a specific topic or opinion. There is also Facebook, Facebook is The world’s largest social network, with more than 1.55 billion monthly active users. Users create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including status updates. There is also Twitter, Twitter is a social networking/micro-blogging platform that allows groups and individuals to stay connected through the exchange of short status messages. Finally there is also Instagram, Instagram is a free photo and video sharing app that allows users to apply digital filters, frames and special effects to their photos and then share them on a variety of social networking sites. There are many more social media apps but these are like the main ones.

Research completed by Gardner, Gabriel, and Hochschild (2002) reveals that when the target for comparison is part is self-construed, it leads the successes of the individual to become a cause for celebration rather than a cost to self-esteem. The current research was based on the theory of self-evaluation in which an individual gains self-esteem when they outperform others and lose self-esteem when they are outperformed. The research from the study shows that we, as humans, are not always greedy and wish to outshine our in-group. Pleasure in successes can be achieved even when we include our friends in our self-views.

The Internet has become one of the greatest sources for entertainment, news, and much more. One of the largest impacts on how we interact with each other is the evolution of social media. Instead of face-to-face conversation, people are now able to share their thoughts instantly to a much wider audience online. One of the most popular social media sites, Facebook, reported its monthly active users to be at

In this day and age, social media has become an integral part of our lives. It has created a platform for people to share information instantly and communicate with people all around the world. Facebook is the most outstanding example of successful social media network. According to the first quarter 2015 earnings announcement by Facebook, the site has achieved 1.44 billion active users per month, and 65% of which are daily active users. Other social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are also a powerful means of communication. With such a large audience, social networking sites provide ample opportunities to acquire information, network, and connect with friends.

On average, Americans spend close to 9 hours a day posting, tweeting, and streaming our lives on multiple social media platforms. Most people use social media to connect with others, express themselves, and to share opinions with the world. Businesses even use social media to advertise, expand customer service, and perform media checks when hiring potential employees.

Social comparison is technically known as “the process of assessing ourselves in relation to others to form judgments of our own talents, abilities, qualities, and so forth” (Wood, 2016, p.50). This internal process is something that occurs constantly in everyday life, although in most cases, is not done deliberately. The process of social comparison begins when one distinguishes any differences or

Often when we’re bored we turn to social media for entertainment. We can check up on family friends or see what the hottest celebrity is up to. Then before we know it, our simple amusement becomes a huge distraction. The amount of people we can connect with on social media is endless and they are all so unique, we can

Social media is quickly evolving in front of our eyes and it is almost impossible to reject and hide from this new form of media. Not only is it an important part of socialization within peer groups but now it is used to market and motivate people to become a part of a larger community. It is undeniably changing the way one communicates and how one finds and shares information. Most websites offer communication through the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and many various blog formats. With new apps on smartphones and photography and video made digital, media can be created, edited and shared quickly and once it is in this new digital cloud it is not yours anymore. Through these new advances in technology one can share things

Throughout the last decade, social media has drastically changed the way people interact with others. Websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have taken the world by storm. It has never been easier to have a conversation with family members, friends, or even strangers who live millions of miles away. Due to the rise of social media, people have become more aware of social issues and have become aware of the world around them. They can easily read the news online or catch up on the latest celebrity drama. Social media improves the way humans communicate because it allows ideas to be spread quickly and efficiently to a global audience.

This can lead to positive and negative affects on people and how they behave. What we surround ourselves with makes a huge difference in our lives.

Social media can be defined as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking. As a phenomenon of only the past couple of decades, it has certainly changed the way we live our everyday lives. Whether socially or professionally, it opens the door to incredible amounts of information; most of which is freely shared.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; all of them ring a bell, do not they? It’s curious how social media platforms have become part of our lives without even noticing them. It doesn’t matter if you are old school or not, at some point in your life, you might have found yourself twitting about this trending topic on the news, or posting an argument on Facebook. It’s a fact that, over the last years, social media platforms have attached themselves to our daily basic routines, some of them growing in popularity and some others completely vanishing.

In western societies, social media use is one of the, -if not the largest time consuming activity. It manifests itself into hundreds of different platforms, like the obvious ones: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Linkedin, YouTube and Pinterest and the less mainstream ones