Facebook often gets bad press. You’ll often see stories about how it has terrible privacy policies, and how it keeps students from getting in to the college of their dreams, or someone who lost their job because of things posted to their Facebook.
A new study by Cornell University shows that people who have a well-groomed Facebook profile tend to make a mirror of sorts that only show’s their admirable qualities and thus boosting the users self-image. In the study researches took 63 students and put them in front of computers. Some computers where off, some had an actual mirror in front of them and others had their Facebook profile. Those viewing their profile were allowed to check out their page the content associated with it.
They say that unlike an actual mirror which shows your reflection as is, which may contain flaws, one’s Facebook profile may only contain positive items. This allows people to feel better about themselves. After 3 minutes viewing what was in front of them the students were given a questionnaire to measure their self-esteem. Those with an actual mirror showed no rise in self-esteem. Those students viewing their Facebook profile showed an increase and those who actually edited their profile showed the highest rise.
As silly as this study may seem, it does seem to make a point. Someone’s online identity doesn’t necessarily show who they are in the in real life. And the lesson to be learned here is that if you’re feeling down in the dumps, groom and edit your Facebook profile and you’ll feel better about yourself.
Who needs self-help books when you’ve got Facebook.
Source: Digital Trends
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