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Title: Country Comparison
Source: Hofstede Insights
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Comment: Explaining 6 cultural dimensions of Thailand and giving some suggestion.

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Country comparison

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Select one or several countries in the menu below to see the values for the 6 dimensions. To compare your personal preferences to the scores of a country get the Culture Compass™ from our store.

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Title: Comparative effects of Facebook and conventional media on body image dissatisfaction

Source: Journal of Eating Disorders

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-015-0061-3
Credibility Evaluation: Group 1 (Scholarly Books and Articles)

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Abstract

Background

Appearance comparison has consistently been shown to engender body image dissatisfaction. To date, most studies have demonstrated this relationship between appearance comparison and body image dissatisfaction in the context of conventional media images depicting the thin-ideal. Social comparison theory posits that people are more likely to compare themselves to similar others. Since social media forums such as Facebook involve one's peers, the current study aimed to determine whether the relationship between appearance comparison and body image dissatisfaction would be stronger for those exposed to social media images, compared to conventional media images.

Methods

A sample of 193 female first year university students were randomly allocated to view a series of either Facebook or conventional media thin-ideal images. Participants completed questionnaires assessing pre- and post- image exposure measures of thin-ideal internalisation, appearance comparison, self-esteem, Facebook use and eating disorder risk.

Results

Type of exposure was not found to moderate the relationship between appearance comparison and changes in body image dissatisfaction. When analysed according to exposure type, appearance comparison only significantly predicted body image dissatisfaction change for those exposed to Facebook, but not conventional media. Facebook use was found to predict higher baseline body image dissatisfaction and was associated with higher eating disorder risk.

Conclusions

The findings suggest the importance of extending the body image dissatisfaction literature by taking into account emerging social media formats. It is recommended that interventions for body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders consider appearance comparison processes elicited by thin-ideal content on social media forums, such as Facebook, in addition to conventional media.

Background

Body image dissatisfaction (BID), that is, the negative evaluations of one's physical body, shape and weight [ 1], has consistently been implicated in the aetiology and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs) [ 2- 4]. High rates of BID are prevalent among young Australian women indicating a need to identify the processes contributing to, and perpetuating, BID [ 5, 6]. BID is postulated to result from the discrepancy between societal and personal standards of appearance [ 7]. Accordingly, the mechanism of appearance comparison (AC), involving a direct comparison between such societal and personal standards of appearance, has been implicated in the development of BID [ 8]. This relationship between AC and BID has typically and consistently been demonstrated in the context of conventional media images [ 9, 10], whereby women exposed to magazine or television images of 'thin-ideal' models and celebrities engage in appearance-related comparisons and experience greater BID [ 6, 11- 18].

Recent research suggests that social networking sites (SNSs: Facebook and Instagram) are increasingly used by college-aged females as the preferred social resource over conventional media forms, for example magazines and television [ 19]. Moreover, a growing literature suggests that SNSs have addictive properties [ 20]. Social comparison theory postulates that individuals are more likely to engage in comparisons with similar (peer groups) rather than dissimilar (others) personal attributes [ 21]. Accordingly, the relationship between AC and BID should be enhanced in SNSs where portrayed females are perceived as real, age- and status-related, and thus more personally identified with in contrast to professional models in conventional media [ 22].

Studies of self-presentation within SNSs have consistently found that users strategically manipulate their profiles in accordance with societal ideals of attractiveness [ 23- 25]. Women viewing images of professional models represented in conventional forms of media remain aware that these have been digitally enhanced [ 26] thereby reducing the likelihood of self- comparison and propensity for BID [ 27]. In contrast, SNS images of 'real' women are assumed to be digitally unaltered and, hence accepted as more accurate and personally relevant [ 28].

Facebook is a popular SNS [ 29], with more than a billion active users [ 30]. Fifty eight percent of users are women [ 31] with users spending around an average of 16 h accessing Facebook per month [ 30]. In Australia there are currently 11,489,580 Facebook users, with the largest age group being 25-34 year-olds, followed by 18-24 year-olds [ 31].

Social media, unlike conventional media, also provides a virtual forum for fat talk, conversational threads about one's own and other's eating and exercise habits, weight concerns and ideal body shapes [ 32], thus serving to intensify the influence of AC on BID [ 33]. Typical Facebook profiles contain strategically selected thin photos of peers coupled with complimentary comments on appearance; for example "you look so skinny and beautiful" [ 24]. One study [ 34] found that 70.2 % of profiles of American undergraduate students referenced exercise and 12.3 %, eating habits with comments like "just did my morning work-out, feeling great!". Of 600 Facebook users aged 16 to 40, 50 % reported that Facebook content made them more body-conscious; 31 % feeling "sad" as a result of comparing photos of themselves to those of Facebook friends, and 44 % reported desiring the same body or weight as Facebook friends [ 35].

Similarly, another study presented participants with a mock Facebook profile-picture and status that expressed a desire to lose weight, followed by their friend's replies either encouraging or discouraging this weight-loss [ 36]. Participants reported greater BID and lower psychological well-being after reading peer-posted thin-promoting compared to thin- discouraging messages [ 36].

Time spent on Facebook appears to be associated with BID and ED pathology [ 37], with the relationship between Facebook and EDs stronger compared to viewing 'Barbie' type models on television and magazines [ 37]. In addition, adolescent Facebook users also score significantly higher on all body image concern measures than non users [ 38]. Although the correlational nature of these studies precludes causal inferences, these findings provide strong evidence implicating Facebook use as an emerging risk factor for BID.

It has been shown that conventional media images of the thin-ideal leads to BID via AC. Given the current increasing popularity of social media in comparison to conventional media, it is important to investigate these formats. Of interest is whether this relationship between AC and BID is stronger for those exposed to social media compared to conventional media. It was hypothesised that, the relationship between appearance comparison and changes in body image dissatisfaction from pre to post-exposure will be stronger for those exposed to Facebook compared to conventional media. Additionally, it was hypothesised that higher Facebook use will predict higher baseline body image dissatisfaction.

Methods

Participants

Two hundred and twenty-nine first year university female psychology undergraduate students were recruited through an online advertisement. Of this sample, 22 participants were excluded from analysis because they failed the manipulation check (see below) and 14 participants because they did not complete the full set of questionnaires. This resulted in a final sample size of 193 participants (response rate = 84.1 %).

An a priori power analysis for a multiple linear regression, assuming a maximum of 6 predictors in the model with a medium effect size (ƒ2 = .15) [ 39], indicated a total sample of N = 146 is sufficient to detect a significant difference at p = 0.05 (actual power = .952) [ 40]. Thus the resulting sample of 193 participants was sufficient.

Participants received course credit for participating in the study. Ages ranged from 17 to 46 years ( M = 19.32, SD = 3.47). Of the sample, n = 90 (47.4 %) participants were Caucasian, n = 68 (35.8 %) Asian, n = 7 (3.7 %) Middle Eastern, n = 1 (0.5 %) Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander, and n = 1 (0.5 %) African and n = 23 (12.1 %) other. One hundred and eighty-five (95 %) participants reported having a Facebook account, 6 (3 %) did not have one, and 3 (1.5 %) failed to indicate. Participants spent an average 15.78 h ( SD = 12.62, Range = 0- 59.5) accessing Facebook each week. Participants were randomly allocated to either the Facebook ( n = 102) or conventional media ( n = 91) stimuli condition using the Qualtrics software program's randomization function.

Design

The study used a 2 × (2) mixed design. The between-group factor was type of exposure, and within-group factor, pre- to post-exposure. The dependent variables were appearance comparison (AC) and body image dissatisfaction change (BID-change) calculated by subtracting pre-exposure from post-exposure BID. Covariates were baseline thin-ideal internalisation, self-esteem and BMI.

Materials

Experimental stimuli

Facebook stimuli

Facebook stimuli consisted of ten slides depicting five mock profile-pages. The profiles were designed to reflect the realistic experience of viewing actual Facebook profiles. There were two slides per profile: thin-ideal profile-pictures (depicting thin females, comparable to those in the conventional media images), status', peer comments, 'tagged' pictures and adverts in the side-bar, and; a 'zoomed-in' profile or tagged picture inclusive of friends' comments as displayed when clicking on the picture. The presentation of Facebook stimuli in this way was intended to simulate a more realistic experience of Facebook, and to reflect the interactive nature of SNSs compared to conventional media images.

Stimuli were selected based on the ratings of a convenience sample of ten independent female university students. In order to ensure that the images were reflective of both attractive and thin images, raters viewed a series of 20 Facebook images and indicated the extent to which these were attractive and reflecting a thin-ideal using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (to an extreme extent). Ten images receiving the highest scores (M = 4.1, SD = 1.12) were selected for use.

To enhance the external validity of the study, peer comments were derived from those found on real Facebook profile-pages, and participants were able to access stimuli from home computers rather than a laboratory site. The images and comments related to the beach, exercise, glamour and/or diet. ( Note. all Facebook names were fabricated and photos were obtained via public access to Facebook).

Conventional media stimuli

Conventional print media stimuli consisted of ten thin-ideal commercial images of models/celebrities with themes matched to those in the Facebook profiles (i.e., beach, exercise, glamour and/or diet). The images consisted of magazine covers or advertisements found in popular magazines and presented in their original format. The same selection criteria used for the Facebook images was applied to the series of 20 Media images; thin-ideal M = 4.3, SD  = 1.16.

Manipulation check

A manipulation check was included to ensure that participants paid adequate attention to the experimental stimuli. Participants were asked to select two pictures that they viewed on the stimuli images out of four possible choices; two stimuli pictures, and two closely matched distractors. Only participants who selected the correct two pictures were included in the analyses.

Measures

Demographics

Participants self reported age, weight, height, ideal weight and race/ethnicity. Self-reported height and weight were used to calculate BMI (weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres).

Facebook use

Participants self reported the extent and type of their Facebook use including number of years spent using, hours per day, times per day and days per week. Extent of Facebook use scores were calculated by hours per access x access per day x days accessed per week.

Type of Facebook use

Participants were asked how often they engaged in various Facebook activities such as looking at profiles of others and reading comments posted by others on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). This metric was used to test the external validity of the stimuli by comparing the extent of similarity between actual Facebook use with experimental stimuli. For this study, the scale showed good reliability ( Cronbach's alpha  = .828).

Thin-ideal internalisation

The 7-item Pressure subscale, one of the four subscales of the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire-Version 3 (SATAQ-V3) [ 41], was used to assess perceived pressure from media to attain the thin-ideal on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Items were summed to obtain a score of thin-ideal internalisation at pre-exposure, with a high score indicating high internalisation of the media's thin-ideal. Previous work found that the Pressure subscale ( alpha = .84) significantly predicted high BID in a sample of 401 female undergraduates [ 42]. The scale showed good reliability ( Cronbach's alpha  = .83).

Self-esteem

Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale [ 43] was used to measure baseline self-esteem. This 10-item scale requires participants to indicate their agreement with each statement on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Resulting scores range from 0 to 30, with higher scores indicating higher self-esteem. A study reported good reliability ( alpha = .88) among a sample of Australian students [ 6]. The scale showed good reliability ( Cronbach's alpha  = .88).

Body image dissatisfaction

The Body Areas Satisfaction Scale (BASS), one of the five subscales of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales (MBSRQ) [ 44], was used to assess current perceptions of one's body image, asking participants to reflect on their level of satisfaction with nine aspects of their physical appearance, "as you feel right now". For the purpose of the current research question looking at changes in state BID following brief exposure, this subscale was used to measure state BID at pre and post-exposure. Items were scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very satisfied) to 5 (very dissatisfied), with high scores indicating high state BID. The subscales showed acceptable reliability ( Cronbach's alpha  = .789).

The literature shows that baseline BID moderates the relationship between media exposure and subsequent BID [ 7, 45- 47]. Therefore it was necessary to account for pre-exposure BID. Pre-exposure BID scores were subtracted from post-exposure BID scores to create a BID- change score. Negative BID-change scores indicate a decrease in BID from pre to post- exposure, whereas positive BID-change scores indicate an increase in BID from pre to post- exposure.

Appearance comparison

A 3-item Extent Thoughts Questionnaire [ 11] was used to measure the extent to which participants had certain thoughts relating to AC while looking at the experimental images. Items, scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (to an extreme extent), were averaged and summed to obtain a composite measure of AC. Higher scores indicate having experienced AC to a greater extent during exposure to the images. The scale previously showed good reliability ( alpha = .80) in a sample of female undergraduates [ 11]. For this study, the scale showed excellent reliability ( Cronbach's alpha  = .94).

Two additional questions, scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (to an extreme extent), were included to assess the relevance of the stimuli to the individual's actual daily exposure. The first item read, "I personally identify with the persona as shown in the images/Facebook profiles" and higher scores indicated higher personal identification with the stimuli personas. The second item read, "The types of images [and comments] I saw [on the Facebook profiles] are similar to those I see every day [when I sign into my own Facebook]" with higher scores indicating greater similarity between the experimental stimuli and the individual's external exposure to Facebook or conventional media images.

Eating disorder risk

The Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) [ 48] was used to identify participants at high risk of ED. This 26-item scale was scored on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (always) to 6 (never). This scale was reported to have excellent reliability ( alpha = .90) among anorexia nervosa patients [ 48] and has been used to identify eating disturbances in non-clinical samples [ 49]. Item scores were summed for an overall test score, ranging from 0 to 78. Using recommendations for non-clinical samples [ 49], those who receive a score of 20+ are considered high risk of having an ED. For this study, the scale showed good reliability ( Cronbach's alpha  = .870).

Procedure

The Human Research Ethics Committee of The University of Sydney approved the study. Participants were emailed the participant information statement and given a URL to log into the questionnaire using Qualtrics software. Clicking onto the questionnaire indicated consent to participate. On completion of the pre-exposure questionnaires (demographics, Facebook use, baseline thin-ideal internalisation, BID and self-esteem) a link randomly allocated participants to one of two conditions:

1. a)
30-s exposure to each of the ten slides, pertaining to five mock Facebook profile- pages (total 5 min exposure time; n = 102); or

2. b)
30-s exposure to ten commercial images of models/celebrities (total 5 min exposure time; n = 91).

After viewing the profiles/images, participants were requested to complete post-exposure questionnaires (manipulation check, state AC, post-BID and ED risk).

Data analyses

Data was analysed using PASW (SPSS) 20.0 software package. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions tested the relationship between AC and BID-change, and whether the type of exposure moderated this relationship. Multiple regressions were used to determine the relationship between level of Facebook use and baseline BID.

Results

Extent of Facebook use was positively correlated with pre-BID, EAT-26 scores and AC indicating that greater time spent on Facebook was associated with higher baseline BID, risk for EDs and engagement in AC following exposure to thin-ideal stimuli (see Table 1). Extent of external Facebook activity similar to the activity elicited in the Facebook stimuli was significantly positively correlated with pre-BID, EAT-26 scores, pre-thin ideal pressure and AC. These correlations indicated that greater engagement in Facebook activities, similar to those elicited by the experimental stimuli, was associated with higher baseline BID, risk for EDs, baseline thin-ideal internalisation and engagement in AC following exposure to thin-ideal stimuli.

A positive BID-change score indicates an increase in BID, and a negative score, a decrease following exposure. Means and standard deviations for pre-BID, post-BID and BID-change scores in both groups are presented in Table 2.

A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to test the hypotheses that type of exposure moderated the relationship between AC and BID-change. Since baseline self-esteem and thin- ideal internalization have been shown to moderate the effects of exposure on BID-change [ 7, 45- 47], these two variables were entered on the first line as covariates, followed by type of exposure (dummy-coded: Media = 0, Facebook = 1), AC and their interaction term (with AC mean-centred). Despite the theoretical rationale for BMI [ 46], it did not significantly correlate with BID-change in the current study and therefore was not included in the analysis.

The full model predicting BID-change from pre-self-esteem, pre-thin-ideal internalisation, AC, exposure and the interaction between AC and exposure was significant and accounted for 15.7 % of the variance in BID-change, R ² = .157, F (5,187) = 6.970, p < .01; adjusted R ² = .135. The only significant predictor of BID-change was AC, indicating that, controlling for the other variables in the model, for every one point increase in AC, BID scores are expected to increase by .073 units following exposure ( B = .073, t = −3.079, p = .002). None of the other variables, including the interaction term, independently predicted BID-change. Table 3 lists the hierarchical multiple regression results.

To test the relationship between AC and BID-change for each type of exposure, two separate hierarchical multiple regressions were run predicting BID-change from AC for Facebook exposure ( M = −3.108, SD = 1.213) and media exposure ( M = 2.810, SD  = 1.079). In both analyses, thin-ideal internalisation and self-esteem were entered on the first step as covariates, followed by AC.

Media exposure

For those exposed to media, the full model predicting BID-change from thin-ideal internalisation, self-esteem and AC was significant and accounted for 9.4 % of the variance in BID-change, R 2 = .094, F (3,87) = 3.017, p = .034; adjusted R 2 = .063. Adding AC did not significantly account for more variance in BID-change above that of thin-ideal internalisation and self-esteem and AC was not a significant predictor of BID-change for those exposed to media ( B = .054, t = 1.440 p  = .153).

Facebook exposure

For those exposed to Facebook, the full model predicting BID-change from thin-ideal internalisation, self-esteem and AC was significant and accounted for 17.3 % of the variance in BID-change, R 2 = .173, F (3,98) = 6.841, p < .01; adjusted R 2 = .148. Adding AC significantly accounted for 8.1 % more variance in BID-change above that of thin-ideal internalisation and self-esteem F (1,98) = 9.566, p < .003. Controlling for thin-ideal internalisation and self-esteem, AC was a significant predictor of BID-change, indicating that for everyone one point increase in AC, BID scores were expected to increase by .074 points following exposure to Facebook stimuli ( B = .074, t = 3.093, p = .003). Table 4 lists the hierarchical multiple regression results for each type of exposure.

To test the prediction that the extent of Facebook use would predict baseline BID, a multiple regression analysis was run, controlling for baseline self-esteem, BMI and pre-thin-ideal internalisation (based on theoretical rationale [ 50] and the significant correlations between these variables and baseline BID). The overall model was significant, accounting for 40.3 % of the variance in baseline BID R ² = .403, F (4,177) = 29.880, p < .01; adjusted R ² = .390. Controlling for the other predictors in the model, extent of Facebook use was a significant predictor of baseline BID, such that for every one hour increase in Facebook use, BID is expected to increase by .007 points ( B = .007, t = −2.327, p = .021). Table 5 lists the multiple regression results.

To determine the degree of perceived similarity between experimental stimuli and Facebook/media images, responses to the question, " the types of images I saw in the stimuli were similar to what I see everyday" were analysed. On average participants exposed to media stimuli found the stimuli significantly more similar to what they reported seeing every day ( M = 3.32, SD = 1.191) compared to those exposed to the Facebook stimuli ( M = 1.81, SD = 1.069), t (1,191) = 9.249, p  < .001.

The extent of Facebook use and ED risk was assessed. Participants scoring higher than or equal to 20 on the EAT-26 were considered at high risk, and those less than 20, at low risk for an ED [ 49]. The average extent of Facebook use was 21.54 h per week ( SD = 16.715) for those in the high-risk group and 14.91 h per week ( SD  = 11.606) for those in the low- risk group.

Extent of Facebook use was not normally distributed across risk groups. A Mann-Whitney U test was therefore run to determine differences in extent of Facebook use between those at high- (EAT-26 score > =20, n = 26) compared to low-risk (EAT-26 score <20, n  = 157) for an ED.

Facebook use scores for high risk (mean rank = 108.04) were statistically significantly higher than for low risk (mean rank = 89.34), U = 1624, z = −1.669, p  = .045.

Discussion

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to compare Facebook and conventional media in their effects on BID using an experimental design. It was hypothesised that the relationship between AC and BID-change would be stronger for those exposed to Facebook images compared to those exposed to conventional images. Although AC was a significant predictor of BID-change for those exposed to Facebook, and not for those exposed to conventional media, type of exposure did not moderate this relationship. In other words, there was no indication of significant differences between Facebook and conventional media in their effects on the relationship between AC and BID-change. Although unexpected, there are a number of possible explanations why a moderating effect was not obtained.

The relationship between AC and BID is said to occur when one is exposed to thin-ideal content [ 51, 52]. In the current study, both stimuli represented thin-ideal content. Accordingly, the non-significant moderating role of type of exposure may be due to ceiling effects. The high degree of thin-ideal content in both forms of stimuli may have led both groups to experience high amounts of AC and BID, thus limiting the capacity for differences to be found between the two exposures. Previous studies investigating the effects of thin-ideal exposure on BID compared contrasting stimuli, for example over-weight females versus thin females [ 53- 55], thin-ideal stimuli versus neutral stimuli [ 17] and attractive females versus objects [ 7]. Such dissimilar stimuli may facilitate the detection of significant differences; however, these were not deemed to be appropriate for the current study that specifically aimed to delineate the differences between thin-ideal content depicted in conventional and social media. The trends found in the current study indicate that there might be an additive effect of the social component of Facebook on AC.

The finding that exposure did not moderate the relationship between AC and BID-change was also unexpected in light of the assertion that females tend to compare themselves more with similar and self-relevant others [ 21]. One possible explanation is that participants may have been more familiar with celebrity models depicted in the conventional media stimuli, and hence perceived as more relevant targets of comparison compared to Facebook stimuli, who were completely unknown to the participants [ 22, 56]. In response to the statement, " the types of images I saw in the stimuli were similar to what I see everyday", participants exposed to the conventional media indicated that the images in the study were more similar to what they see every day compared to those in the Facebook group. Moreover, females in the Facebook images were selected because they represented the thin-ideal and thus did not look vastly different from the models in the media stimuli. Consequently, the participants may have perceived the Facebook 'friends' as models, similar to those in the conventional media images.

It has been suggested that Facebook friends, who are usually highly similar and socially relevant to the Facebook user, may elicit more significant comparative processes [ 57]. Given the media stimuli were perceived as more relevant and familiar to participants in the current study, the non-significant differences between the two groups may indicate that the experimental stimuli were not able to elicit the social nuances distinctive to Facebook profiles. Thus, future studies comparing the effects of Facebook and conventional media images on AC and BID should aim to use Facebook profiles pertaining to the participants' actual peers.

Finally, the non-significant differences may indicate that Facebook and conventional media may be comparable in their effects on AC and BID. This has implications both theoretically and practically, given that thin-ideal images in conventional media have consistently been found to have detrimental effects on BID and broader mental health issues [ 7, 16, 47, 58- 60]. Moreover, there is increasing evidence of the high user rates of Facebook and other SNSs over that of conventional media [ 19]. The present results indicate that Facebook, like conventional media, may play a similar role in the development of BID.

The hypothesis that higher Facebook use is associated with higher baseline BID was supported. Furthermore, results indicated that the extent of Facebook use accounted for unique variance in baseline BID above that of self-esteem, BMI and thin-ideal internalisation, variables already established as risk factors for BID [ 46]. This finding suggests that high Facebook use may be considered a risk factor for BID, even when controlling for self-esteem, BMI and thin-ideal internalisation.

Of interest was the considerably higher average Facebook use in the current sample compared to previous frequency studies. Whereas the average use in Australia is 15.55 h per month [ 31], the average use in the current sample was 15.78 h per week (i.e., greater than 60 h per month). This notably higher use may be due to the fact that the sample was comprised of only females, the dominant gender in Facebook use within the age group with the highest reported Facebook use [ 31]. In light of these demographics, the higher Facebook use in the current study may not be surprising. Nevertheless, caution should be taken when generalising the current findings to older samples or the general population.

An important finding was the relationship between Facebook use and ED risk. Post-hoc analyses revealed that Facebook use was significantly higher for those at high risk of EDs compared to those at low risk. This finding was consistent with a recent survey that found an association between time spent on Facebook and ED pathology [ 37]. The correlational finding could indicate that excessive Facebook use is associated with an individual's risk of developing an ED. The integrated cognitive-behavioural theory of EDs [ 61] identifies a feedback loop whereby exposure to body-related stimuli activates and reinforces an over- concern with one's own body, which in turn reactivates attentional biases toward body- related stimuli. The frequency of this feedback loop serves to generate or maintain EDs [ 61] and this process could possibly explain the finding of a relationship between frequent Facebook use and ED risk. Accordingly, it may be the case that frequent exposure to thin- ideal content on Facebook reinforces one's own body-related concerns, eliciting cognitive biases that lead one to selectively attend to thin-ideal content on Facebook [ 37].

On the other hand, it may be possible that people with a higher risk of EDs are more likely to use Facebook, which may in turn serve to reinforce their ED risk [ 62]. Cognitive models of EDs posit that individuals with EDs show a selective attention for appearance-related cues [ 61]. Thus, the current study's finding of an association between ED risk and high Facebook use could imply that people with EDs may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of Facebook. Either way, the current results highlight the need for further research into the relationship between ED risk and Facebook use. Moreover, this study operationalized ED risk using recommendations for a non-clinical sample [ 49]. Future research with clinically diagnosed ED samples may prove to be more useful in examining the role of Facebook use in the development and maintenance of EDs.

As in all studies there are limitations. All data collected was self-report, including self- reported weight and height, which is subject to recall errors or biased reporting. A main caveat of the current study is a lack of external validity for the Facebook stimuli, which contained mock personas rather than the participants' actual peers. Therefore Facebook's additional peer-relevant component was less salient. The current study attempted to increase external validity by designing stimuli that replicated real Facebook profile-pages, with participants able to access the experimental stimuli from their own computer at leisure.

Another potential limitation was that the current study only included female 'friends' without also including comments by male 'friends'. The Catalyst Model [ 63] argues that BID is a direct outcome of competition between females for mates. In social contexts, women understand that they are competing for sexual partners with their peers, in contrast to models or celebrities where there is no perceived competition [ 64]. Furthermore, female AC tendencies have been found to be heightened in the context of potential male partners [ 65]. Given that Facebook friends typically consist of both females and males, and that Facebook is used to develop or maintain both social and romantic relationships, it may have been informative to include both male and female images and comments in the experimental stimuli. It is possible that these additions may have led to increased AC and thus greater BID than for those exposed to conventional media images, void of a social or romantic context.

It is also possible that the difference between conventional media and Facebook exposure was not evident in this short-term study, but may have a differential influence on BID in the long-term. It has been argued that whilst it may be difficult to capture the effects of a brief exposure to thin-ideal images in a laboratory setting, continuous exposure to thin-ideal media in everyday life may serve to reinforce BID in the long-term [ 10, 60]. The duration of the exposure to Facebook images in the current study was 5 min in total whereas the average amount of time per Facebook access is typically 20 min, numerous times a day [ 31]. Moreover, the trends in the current study showed that AC was greater for those exposed to Facebook than conventional media. Therefore despite the fact that there were no significant findings of an acute effect of exposure to Facebook on BID over conventional media in the present study, it is plausible that continued exposure to Facebook thin-ideal content could have dire effects in the long-term, above that of conventional media [ 60]. Longitudinal research is needed to further examine the long-term effects of such a relationship.

Conclusion

This study's findings have several theoretical and practical implications. The current study's finding that the relationship between AC and BID was comparable between Facebook and conventional media, suggests that Facebook, and potentially other SNSs, are key factors that need to be considered in the development of BID.

Additionally, the finding that AC is affected by Facebook, not just conventional media, suggests that interventions should focus on how people compare themselves with peers in social media, in addition to how they view models in conventional media images. The finding of an association between the extent of Facebook use and ED risk indicates that, although thin-ideal forums such as Facebook do not cause EDs, they may be one of many maintaining factors, reinforcing an over-evaluation of weight and shape [ 61].

Although this explorative study failed to demonstrate that the relationship between AC and BID is stronger following exposure to Facebook than conventional media in the short-term, it suggested that exposure to Facebook is at least on par with conventional media exposure in its detrimental effects on BID via AC.

The present study contributes to the existing literature on the media's influence on BID by expanding upon a narrow focus on conventional media only by exploring emerging social media formats.

Abbreviations

BID:

Body image dissatisfaction

BID-Change:

Body image dissatisfaction change score

AC:

Appearance comparison

ED:

Eating disorder

BMI:

Body mass index

SNS:

Social networking site

Acknowledgements

None.

Author information

Affiliations

School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Camperdown NSW, 2006, Australia

Authors

1. Rachel Cohen

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2. Alex Blaszczynski

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel Cohen.

Additional information

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors' contributions

RC carried out the study, ran the statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript. AB supervised throughout and revised the manuscript accordingly. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Comparative effects of Facebook and conventional media on body image dissatisfaction

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Appearance comparison has consistently been shown to engender body image dissatisfaction. To date, most studies have demonstrated this relationship between appearance comparison and body image dissatisfaction in the context of conventional media images depicting the thin-ideal. Social comparison theory posits that people are more likely to compare themselves to similar others.

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Title: Social comparison, individualism-collectivism, and self-esteem in china and the United States

Source: Current Psychology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-999-1008-0
Credibility Evaluation: Group 1 (Scholarly Books and Articles)

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Keywords

Social Comparison Current Psychology Class Average Test Grade Social Comparison Theory

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References

1. Buunk, B.P., Collins, R.L., Taylor, S.E., and VanYperen, N.W. (1990). The affective consequences of social comparison: Either direction has its ups and downs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1238-1249.

2. Kagitcibasi, C. (1994). A critical appraisal of individualism and collectivism: Toward a new formulation. In U. Kim, H.C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S.C. Choi, and G. Yoon ( Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications (pp. 52-65). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

3. Kashima, Y., Yamaguchi, S., Kim, U., Choi, S., Gelfand, M.J., and Yuki, M. (1995). Culture, gender, and self: A perspective from individualism-collectivism research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 925-937.

4. Keping, Y. (1995). Marx's theory of civil society and its historical position. Social Sciences in China, Summer 1995, 88-97.

5. Kim, U. (1994). Individualism and collectivism: Conceptual clarification and elaboration. In U. Kim, H.C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S.C. Choi, and G. Yoon ( Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications (pp. 19-40). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

6. Rhee, E., Uleman, J.S., Lee, H.K., and Roman, R.J. (1995). Spontaneous self-descriptions and ethnic identities in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 142-152.

7. Wood, J.V., Beech, M.G., Tylor, K.L., Michela, J.L., and Gaus, V. (1994). Strategies of social comparison among people with low self-esteem: Self-protection and self-enhancement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 67, 713-731.

8. Yamaguchi, S. (1994). Collectivism among the Japanese: A perspective from the self. In U. Kim, H.C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S.C Choi, G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method, and applications (pp. 175-188). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Social comparison, individualism-collectivism, and self-esteem in china and the United States

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Social Comparison Current Psychology Class Average Test Grade Social Comparison Theory These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

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Title: Raw Roti Dough Challenge Goes Viral On TikTok, Thai Public Health Warns Youth Of Food Poisoning Risks

Source: The Smart Local
Credibility Evaluation: Group 9 (Blog Article)
Source Bias: slightly bias
Factual Reporting: high
Comment: The writer wrote about actual event that happen on social media, but lacks information to support how raw roti affect health.

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TheSmartLocal Thailand - Things To Do In Bangkok

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Thai netizens have been baffled by a new, weird trend that has been circulating amongst Thai youngsters: the "eating raw roti dough" challenge. Yep, you read that right.

on the social media platform, TikTok, has surfaced online and shown Thai youth eating uncooked dough with condensed milk and melted butter.

Normally, Thais eat roti as dessert. We fry the dough in oil or butter until it turns golden and crisp. Then we would put on delicious toppings like condensed milk, sugar, and chocolate sauce for extra deliciousness.

Raw dough poses a serious health risk as it can contain harmful bacteria in uncooked flour and eggs.

It goes without saying that a lot of netizens were gasping in disbelief and didn't hesitate to fire back at this silly trend. Some even called this 'natural selection' -

Translation: How far do people go for attention? Geez, have they lost their brain?

Translation: Let natural selection runs its course.

Translation: I saw this in my neighbourhood. The seller told me it's not good to eat the dough uncooked.

Woman apologised for being the trendsetter

This week, TikTok user Lookketfortune, who has amassed more than 500K followers on the platform, posted an apology video because she believes she was the one who started this trend.

In the video, she stated that she only wanted to try raw roti dough out of curiosity and didn't think her followers would make it into the trend it is today.

Thai Public Health issued a warning

On 3rd January 2020, Thai Public Health posted a PSA in the form of a comic on their Facebook page to raise awareness of this scary trend.

The caption in the photo read: "You shouldn't eat food that's meant to be cooked raw!" This was followed by the potential health risks, like digestion problems and food poisoning, if one were to consume uncooked dough.

Roti dough consists of flour, egg, butter, condensed milk and is kept overnight, often in the fridge. During this time, the dough might develop bacteria that can harm your body, and this can be easily prevented by cooking it.

It's a no brainer that we should only consume cooked food items without other people, let alone the health department, telling us to do so.

And if the trend suggests otherwise...well, keep in mind that no one will be responsible for your own health but yourself.
Enjoying The Smart Local Thailand? Follow us on Instagram at @TheSmartLocalTH for more stories like this!

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Raw Roti Dough Challenge Goes Viral On TikTok, Thai Public Health Warns Youth Of Food Poisoning Risks

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Raw roti dough challenge in Thailand Images adapted from: Line, Nane Game Channel Thai netizens have been baffled by a new, weird trend that has been circulating amongst Thai youngsters: the "eating raw roti dough" challenge. Yep, you read that right. Doesn't this look appetising? Not.

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Title: Global social media research summary 2019

Source: Smart Insights

Credibility Evaluation: Group 9 (Blog Article)
Source Bias: Neutral
Factual Reporting: high
Comment: Just giving the statistics about the usage of social media in Thailand

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Our compilation of the latest social media statistics of consumer adoption and usage of social networking platforms

Social networks have transformed marketing and, as this post shows, their popularity is still growing in our latest global social media statistics research summary for 2023.

Networks vary in popularity with different demographics and they're still evolving. Research by Global WebIndex that we reference in this article shows that globally,

59% of the world's population uses social media. The average daily usage is 2 hours and 31 minutes (January 2023).

We'll keep this post updated during 2023 as the latest statistics are published drawing on our recommended top 10 digital marketing statistics sources. We'll be pointing to new data on the popularity of social media from Global Web Index (worldwide), Pew Internet Surveys (US) and OfCom (UK), and most recently the Datareportal January 2023 global overview.

This post will apply the latest reports to our answers in 7 key areas crucial to understanding consumer use of social networks:

Q1. What is the overall popularity of social media compared to internet use globally?

Q2. Which are the most popular social networks by demographics (age and gender)?

Q3. Which are the fastest-growing social networks?

Q4. How do social users interact with brands when selecting products and services?

Q5. What are the different engagement metrics based on consumer behavior when using social media?

Q6. How do consumers interact with different post formats in social media?

Q7. What are the most popular times for consumers to use social media suggesting the best times to post?

Now more than ever, marketers need to make smart decisions when planning their digital distribution channels. So reviewing the latest social media diffusion and usage stats is a crucial part of any company's digital marketing strategy.

If you're looking for a new data-driven approach to planning your digital marketing strategy, why not download our free RACE Growth System template?

Q1. What is the overall popularity of social media compared to internet use globally?

Datareportal regularly updates its massive global compendium of social media statistics, which gives some great insights into the world of social media. It's a great download for including slides for your presentations.

How many people use social media?

As per the Datareportal January 2023 global overview we can see that social media growth has continued to increase:

More than half of the world now uses social media (59%)

4.76 billion people around the world now use social media, 137 million new users have come online within the last 12 months

The average daily time spent using social media is 2h 31m.

The full report from Datareportal contains a huge amount of insight collated from different data providers across 200+ slides. It provides country-specific data for the vast majority of the world, so you might want to check out the slides of the countries in your core markets to get a better idea of the current state of social in the areas you operate. In this post, we focus on the social media data which starts at slide 160 in the report.

This chart, by Datareportal, summarises the importance and growth of social media today.

Post-pandemic marketing update

In addition to business as usual, a special report by Datareportal in July 2020, examines changes in social media usage during the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown period. Notably a monumental increase in online and digital activities.

The increase came after a couple of years where growth had seemed to slow down, this behavior was attributed to changes in user behavior due to the lockdown. However, with growth continuing in 2023, there may be more at play than just the initial lockdown trends.

Q2. Which are the most popular social networks by demographics (age and gender)?

The best source for getting stats on the biggest social media platforms is direct from company statements and earning announcements.

Notably, of the top 4 social media platforms, 3 are owned by Meta. Facebook is the most-used platform in total - but as marketers, we know it's crucial to consider different trends of usage for different demographics, as we'll see below.

The rapid growth TikTok underwent in 2021 (resulting in a 142% increase YOY) saw it ranked the sixth most-used platform for the first time in July 2022. In January 2023 that remains the case.

With Elon Musk's proposed acquisition of Twitter we can expect changes to the platform including how Twitter regulates/empowers freedom of speech values for consumers and businesses.

So, what does this mean for your social media marketing strategy? Clearly, there are lots of opportunities to reach, interact with, convert and engage social media users across a wide number of channels, each with different features.

Don't forget you can use our free RACE Growth System template to identify digital priorities across targeted social media marketing to your identified target markets, through their favorite social media channels. You can find out more about the biggest social media channels in the breakdown below:

Global Facebook demographics

Since it is still the top dog, I'll share the Facebook demographics from Sprout Social Media's 2022 report. But you can get this breakdown for each channel and more in the report. This report was last updated in March 2022.

As we can see, from the Facebook data, the biggest demographic on Facebook is males aged 25-34. For females also this age range represents the largest user pool.
United States Social network popularity
The Pew Research Center news usage research is a very strong recent source showing US social media statistics trends in usage for news. Interestingly, nearly half of those surveyed in 2021 used social media to get news often or sometimes.

More interestingly, the stats breakdown below shows which social media channels are used by which genders, ages, education level, race, and political affiliations. For example, Facebook is a regular source of news to nearly double the amount of women to men. Nearly two thirds of Snapchat's regular news consumers are aged 18-29.

The 2021 Children and parents: media use and attitudes report published by OfCom (UK) is interesting if your business is involved in marketing to children or youth markets or you want to understand future adult use of social media. Notably, 44% of 8-11 year olds use social media apps/sites, swiftly increasing to 87% of 12-15 year olds.

Here's a snapshot of two of the four age groups featured.

Structure your marketing plan around a funnel proven to boost performance. Join Smart Insights as a Free Member for instant access to our RACE Growth System guide to hone your skills and drive the results you need.

Q3. Which are the fast-growing social networks?

Every marketer has limited time for social media marketing, so which fastest growing social network should you focus your efforts on?

The fastest growing social media network in 2021 was TikTok, with 18.3% YOY growth, over 87.1% growth in 2020, as measured by US Social Network User Growth.

With the ' Rise of Social media' interactive tool from 'Our World in Data' you can see the growth of the main networks between 2004 (when Myspace became the first platform to gain 1 million users) up to the end of 2019.

A summary of global social media growth

The number of social media users globally grew from 4.2 billion in January 2021 to 4.62 billion in January 2022. This accounts for a 10.1% growth YOY of global social media usage. In comparison, January 2023 saw a modest 3% growth of +137 million users.

Social media vs internet users: opportunities for growth

This chart shows the total number of Internet users as of January 2023. Whilst 64.4% of the world's population are internet users, 5% of those are still not active social media users.

Social media platforms today are evolving and developing to meet an ever-wider variety of consumer wants and needs. Surely the value that social media usage can add to consumers' lives is more evident than ever before - social media marketers can tap into that.

2023 analysis of regional use of social media shows the wide variation of social media penetration:

72% in Eastern Asia

74% in North America

72% in Southern America

84% in both Northern and Western Europe.

This falls to 41% in Southern Asia, 13% in Western Africa, and 7% in Middle Africa.

As you can see, the makeup of our international social media users is varied. This useful infographic demonstrates the share of global social media users - with Eastern Asia representing 27.7% of global social media users.

Q4. How do social users interact with brands when selecting products and services?

One of the challenges of social media marketing is that by its nature, social media are peer-to-peer, involving conversations between friends, families and colleagues. Given this, brands must be sensitive to how they use social media.

The research from GlobalWebIndex in their social media trends 2021 report shows how/why visitors use different social media services. Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Reddit and Twitter users all report 'follow/find information about products/brands' in their top 3 motivations.

Platform-specific social media marketing planning

Our new Organic Social Media Learning Path modules (released May 2022) are dedicated to helping marketers optimize their organic Instagram marketing with a strategic approach, integrated across the marketing funnel.

Our bite-sized modules contain tools and templates designed to help you address the systematic issue of businesses using social media platforms to create standalone posts rather than planning a strategy.

Our Social Media Learning Path has modules with dedicated help for:

This example plan, taken from our Facebook module, demonstrates how a joined-up approach can strengthen each stage of the funnel, across the RACE Framework of reach, act, convert, and engage.

Q5. What are the best benchmarks for different platforms' engagement rates?

Social media statistics benchmarking tool Rival IQ produces these useful sector-by-sector benchmarks of social media engagement metrics including:

Posts per day

Posts per week

Engagement rate

Top hashtags by engagement rate

These include useful sector benchmarks for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter you can compare against. Here is a sample of the insights from their 2022 report.
Facebook engagement rates
The 2021 median average engagement rate per post (by follower) on Facebook is 0.064%, across all industries. Sports Teams see the highest engagement, achieving an average of 0.27%, followed by Influencers with 0.23% and Higher Education with 0.15%.

At the lower end of the spectrum, Health & Beauty, and Tech & Software receive an average 0.02% engagement rate.
Instagram engagement rates
Engagement rates are significantly higher on Instagram compared to Facebook. As you can see the 2021 average median engagement rate per post (by follower) is more than 10x higher, despite engagement on Instagram dropping approx 30% between 2020-21.

Q6. How do consumers interact with different post formats in social media?

Marketers know intuitively that the right type of visuals and videos are more effective in gaining engagement.

This is supported by observed interaction rates. According to LinkedIn, Images typically result in a 2x higher comment rate and Video gets 5x more engagement on LinkedIn, Live Video gets 24x more.

This is also supported by this data from this Social Bakers social media trends report:

Videos longer than a minute achieved the highest median interactions and median reach on Facebook, according to Socialbakers data.

In fact, for both reach and interactions, there was a correlation that showed the longer a video was, the further it reached and the more interactions it received.

Socialbakers' metrics for video length are very short (less than 11.882 seconds), short (more than 11.882 and less than 24.362 seconds), medium (more than 24.362 and less than 61.248 seconds), long (more than 61.248 seconds and less than five minutes), and very long (more than five minutes).

Q7. What are the most popular times for consumers to use social media suggesting the best times to post?

Testing different frequency of updates and timing is another aspect of social media optimization based on consumer behaviour.

Each network tends to have a 'sweet spot' for frequency based on their algorithms. It used to be beneficial to post several times a day on Facebook for many brands, but with decrease organic reach, a single update tends to be more effective. We find a higher frequency on LinkedIn or Twitter tends to be more effective.

Sprout Social's 2022 social media strategy builder compares the best times to post on social media. Compare these to your patterns of posting and consider how you could post differently.

Each network tends to have a 'sweet spot' for frequency based on their algorithm and the most common times for consumer usage. It used to be beneficial to post several times a day on Facebook for many brands, but with decreased organic reach, a single update tends to be more effective.

We find a higher frequency on LinkedIn or Twitter tends to be more effective. The results from Instagram and Facebook show a clear preference for around midweek at midday, so you should consider this when scheduling your post updates.

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Global social media statistics research summary 2022 [June 2022]

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Social networks have transformed marketing and, as this post shows, their popularity is still growing in our latest global social media statistics research summary for 2023. Networks vary in popularity with different demographics and they're still evolving. Research by Global WebIndex that we reference in this article shows that globally, 59% of the world's population uses social media.

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Title: Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem
Source: Association for Computing Machinery
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2820066
Credibility Evaluation: Group 1 (Scholarly Books and Articles)

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What social value do Likes on Facebook hold? This research examines people's attitudes and behaviors related to receiving one-click feedback in social media. Likes and other kinds of lightweight affirmation serve as social cues of acceptance and maintain interpersonal relationships, but may mean different things to different people. Through surveys and de-identified, aggregated behavioral Facebook data, we find that in general, people care more about who Likes their posts than how many Likes they receive, desiring feedback most from close friends, romantic partners, and family members other than their parents. While most people do not feel strongly that receiving "enough" Likes is important, roughly two-thirds of posters regularly receive more than "enough." We also note a "Like paradox," a phenomenon in which people's friends receive more Likes because their friends have more friends to provide those Likes. Individuals with lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of self-monitoring are more likely to think that Likes are important and to feel bad if they do not receive "enough" Likes. The results inform product design and our understanding of how lightweight interactions shape our experiences online.

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What's in a Like? | Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing

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What social value do Likes on Facebook hold? This research examines people's attitudes and behaviors related to receiving one-click feedback in social media. Likes and other kinds of lightweight affirmation serve as social cues of acceptance and maintain interpersonal relationships, but may mean different things to different people.

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Title: Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health: Findings From the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Source: Article history
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2018.12.005
Credibility Evaluation: Group 1 (Scholarly Books and Articles)

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Title: The Impact of the Internet on Teenagers' Face-to-Face Communication

Source: Global Media Journal
DOI: None
Credibility Evaluation: Group 1 (Scholarly Books and Articles)

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Young Soo Shim*

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

*Corresponding Author:

Young Soo Shim
College of Mass Communication and Media Arts In the Graduate School
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Phone: 618-453-7924
Email: mir7924@siu.edu

Visit for more related articles at Global Media Journal

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between teenagers' Internet use and their interpersonal communication behavior - most of all, whether Internet use was associated with the teens' loss of desire for face-to-face communication with family and friends. Also examined was whether any loss of desire for face-to-face communication with family and friends was linked to certain motives for going online. The findings of this study were based on statistical analyses of 405 valid returns of self-administered questionnaires from 657 students of Carbondale Community High School in Carbondale, Illinois, who were selected through a purposive sampling. The results showed that Internet use was significantly correlated with decreases in face-to-face communication with family (r = - .137, p < .01) and with decreases in desire for face-to-face communication with family (r = - .120, p = .01). Most significantly, this study found that Internet use displaces not only the time the teens spent with family, but also their desire for spending time with family.

Introduction

No field of human life has been more affected by the Internet than the way people communicate with others, as Fulk and Ryu (1990) and Williams and Rice (1983) predicted. Chesebro and Bonsall (1989) even argued that the Internet "is altering how, if, and when people talk to each other in all social systems and even in the privacy of the American home" (p. 7). The Internet is fundamentally changing human communication.

Such a tremendous impact of the Internet on human communication raises a legitimate question: Is the Internet displacing or supplanting face-to-face communication, particularly among family members and friends? Considering the importance of face-to-face interaction in social life, the question should have been extensively examined, but surprisingly few studies have been done. None of the studies has gone further than scratching the surface. Only a few scholars, such as Nie and Erbring (2000), have gone beyond the usual new media vs. traditional media displacement study to explore the relationship between Internet use and interpersonal communication with family members.

Significantly, the findings of the previous studies are mixed at best. For example, Nie and Erbring (2000) and Kraut et al. (1998) found that the more people used the Internet, the lonelier they felt and the less they engaged in interpersonal communication, even with their family members. The finding was consistent with the findings of McKenna and Bargh (2000), and McKenna, Green, and Gleason (2002). Not surprisingly, other studies found the positive impact of the Internet on social interaction with family and friends (e.g., Kraut et al., 2002; Lee & Kuo, 2002; Robinson, Barth, & Kohut, 1997) and on community and political involvement (e.g., Katz, Rice, & Aspden, 2001). Notably, the studies suggesting negative impact of Internet use on people outnumber those that reported beneficial influences of Internet use.

Despite such a tremendous role of the Internet in human communication, no serious attempt has yet been made to answer the more basic question: Does Internet use decrease people's interest in face-to-face communication with others, including family members and friends? If Internet use is associated with decreased desire for face-to-face communication, even with family members and close friends, Internet users may be losing some of the most important aspects of their life: family relationships and friendships. But if people have less face-to-face communication with their family members only as a result of using the Internet at home for work, without losing their desire for communication with others, this might be a less serious problem.

A more alarming possibility is that youths avoid spending time with their parents and instead prefer to surf the Internet. If youths prefer to send an e-mail to their next-door neighbor instead of meeting with their neighbors face-to-face, a serious problem might exist. The Internet could be destroying the basic fabric of human society, or family and community relationships. Some studies showed that such a concern is not unfounded. For example, CyberAtlas (2002) reported that 56% of youths aged 18-19 polled preferred online communication to phone conversations. This is why this study chose to investigate youths, or more specifically high school students. Studies found that youths of high school age used the Internet more than any other age group (UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2003). In addition, empirical evidence shows that the quality of communication between children and parents significantly affects family relationships (e.g., Fitzpatrick & Vangelisti, 1995; Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Socha & Stamp, 1995). Most significantly, studies (e.g., Nie & Erbring, 2000; Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2000a) found that Internet use was negatively linked with its users' spending time with family and friends.

The heart of this study seeks to answer the question: Is Internet use linked to a possible decrease in teenagers' desire for face-to-face communication with others, especially family members and friends? Considering the rapid growth of Internet use and its tremendous impact on daily lives, the importance of a study on the topic is clear.

How can these questions be explored from the theoretical point of view? This study is based on the time-displacement theory. In brief, time-displacement theory states that people have the same amount of time to spend, and thus, if they start a new activity, they will have to decrease other activities. A reasonable extension of this theory may be that if people begin using the Internet, they will have to reduce other activities, which may include face-to-face social interaction with family.

Theoretical Background

The time-displacement hypothesis posits that if people begin a new activity, they will have to reduce their time spent with other activities. The key assumption of the concept is that human activities have a zero-sum property - that is, people cannot begin a new activity without decreasing time devoted to prior activities because everyone has only 24 hours a day to spend. When the hypothesis is applied to Internet use, people starting to use the Internet will have to decrease time devoted to other activities. Though the hypothesis seems self-evident, the concept has long served as a theoretical basis for dozens of studies that examined how each new media technology affected people's use of traditional media (e.g., Coffin, 1948; Belson, 1961; Nie & Erbring, 2000).

Studies on the Internet's the time-displacement theory are plentiful, lending strong credence to the concept's validity. In one of the earliest studies to extend the hypothesis to the Internet, some studies (e.g., Kohut, 1996; Active Media Research, 1998; Kaye, 1998) found that the more people spent time online, the less they watched television. These early studies' findings on the Internet's displacement of television viewing were almost consistently supported by later studies (e.g., Nie & Erbring, 2000; UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2000, 2001, 2003; Scarborough Research, 2001).

But the findings of the studies on the Internet's displacement of interpersonal communication was less consistent. Some studies like Nie and Erbring (2000) and National Public Radio et al. (2000) found that the more hours people logged on the Internet, the less they talked with their family members and friends. But other studies found that Internet use had little effect on the amount of time that users spent with family and friends (UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2000), beneficial effect on interaction with family members (Lee & Kuo, 2002; UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2003), and positive impact on overall social interaction (McKenna & Bargh, 2000; Katz, Rice & Aspden,2001; McKenna, Green & Gleason, 2002; Pruijt, 2002). Most notably, in a reversal of their 1998 findings, Kraut et al. (2002) found that the Internet had a generally positive effect on its users.

Little consensus has been reached on whether Internet use has a negative or positive impact on interpersonal communication. But this invites a question: But if people spend up to 10 hours a week using the Internet (e.g., UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2000), how could they find the time without reducing other activities? As the zero-sum property of time-displacement theory suggests, people have a limited amount of time to spend each day. For most modern people who already have a tight daily schedule, the first things to be displaced by Internet use may include the time spent with family members. Even if people are expanding their social connectivity through Internet use as many previous studies showed, it seems reasonable to suggest that they could do so only at the expense of face-to-face communication activities including social interaction with family. This study is designed to answer the question.

Research Hypotheses

On the basis of the literature review, this study attempts to answer certain research questions and the test hypotheses.

Research Question One

What is the relationship between Internet use and the teenage Internet users' face-to-face communication?

Hypothesis 1A: The more teenagers use the Internet, the less face-to-face communication they have with their immediate family members.

Hypothesis 1B: The more teenagers use the Internet, the less face-to-face communication they have with their friends.

Research Question Two

What is the relationship between Internet use and the Internet users' desire for face-to-face communication? This question represents the heart of this study.

Hypothesis 2A: The more teenagers use the Internet, the less desire they have for face- to-face communication with their family members.

Hypothesis 2B: The more teenagers use the Internet, the less desire they have for face-to-face communication with their friends.

Method

This study surveyed 405 conveniently-sampled students of the Carbondale Community High School in Carbondale, Illinois. The survey was self-administered mostly over the weekend at the respondents' home. The teenagers' desire for face-to-face communication with family and friends was measured by their self-assessment because no scale to measure the concept exists.

Carbondale Community High School was selected for several reasons including researcher ease and expense. The most significant reason is that the city of Carbondale is an average American small city. The city of Carbondale is located 96 miles southeast of St. Louis, and has a population of about 27,000. Carbondale Community High School had 1,006 students as of January 2003.

The second most significant reason for surveying high school students is that most of the high school students live with their parents, and thus have a natural opportunity to have face-to-face communication with their family. Because investigating face-to-face communication with family and desire for face-to-face interaction with family are at the heart of this study, living with family is the most important requirement of the sample. Another reason for surveying the high school students is that Internet use was the highest among the high school-age youths of all age groups (UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2003). Younger people were not chosen for this study because many parents impose restrictions on their children's use of the Internet to keep them from being exposed to undesirable online content.

Administration of Survey

The questionnaires for this study were distributed to 800 students of Carbondale Community High School through its classroom teachers at the beginning of classes October 13-24, 2003. The teachers gave their students oral instructions about how to respond to the survey as well as an offer of reward. The students were told to bring the questionnaire to their home, to obtain permission from their parents to participate in the survey, to take sufficient time to respond to the questionnaire over the weekend, and to return it to their teacher at the beginning of the next week.

Results

Of the 800 questionnaires handed out, 657 questionnaires (82.1%) were retrieved. Of the questionnaires returned, 252 had to be discarded because they were incomplete or failed to pass face-value validity checks. The researcher examined whether there was a response set or whether those who answered gave unusually high responses to communication variables.

Descriptive Data

Age and gender. Because the survey was administered to high school students, all of the respondents were teenagers from 14 to 18 with more than three-quarters of them between age 15 and 17. This study purposively sampled local high school students to control for extraneous variables, such as age and education. The respondents consisted of 197 males and 203 females. Five declined to answer the gender question.

Ethnic background. Respondents were ethnically diverse. Caucasians accounted for 57.3% of the respondents, followed by African-Americans (25.2%), Hispanics (4.7%), and Asians (4.4%). Meanwhile, 6.7% classified themselves as "others." The ethnic composition of the respondents closely matched that of Carbondale. The population of the city consisted of 64.7% Caucasians, 23.1% African-Americans, 4.8% Asians, and 3% Hispanics ("City of Carbondale," 2004).

Ethnic background. Respondents were ethnically diverse. Caucasians accounted for 57.3% of the respondents, followed by African-Americans (25.2%), Hispanics (4.7%), and Asians (4.4%). Meanwhile, 6.7% classified themselves as "others." The ethnic composition of the respondents closely matched that of Carbondale. The population of the city consisted of 64.7% Caucasians, 23.1% African-Americans, 4.8% Asians, and 3% Hispanics ("City of Carbondale," 2004).

NTIA study found that African-Americans and Hispanics trailed Caucasians in terms of ownership of personal computers and online access.

Of the 66 respondents without online access at home, 33.3% reported family income of $20,000 or less, 36.4% between $20,001 and $40,000, 16.7% between $40,001 and $60,000, and 6.1% between $60,001 and $80,000. In contrast, only two of the respondents who reported having a family income of more than $80,000 had no Internet access at home.

Daily Internet use. The respondents spent an average of 89.4 minutes (1.5 hours) online per day (M = 89.4 minutes, Median = 60.0 minutes, Mode = 0, SD = 85.1). The amount of time spent online ranged from the low of zero minutes reported by 83 respondents to a high of 360 minutes (6 hours) by four respondents.

For face-to-face communication with family, 25% of respondents replied that Internet use decreased their desire, as opposed to only 10.2% who replied the opposite. But nearly two-thirds of respondents said that Internet use did not change their desire for face-to-face communication with family.

Testing Research Hypotheses

Research Question 1

Research Question 1 examined the relationship between Internet use and the teenage Internet users' face-to-face communication.

Hypothesis 1A. Hypothesis 1A predicted that the more teenagers used the Internet, the less face-to-face communication they had with their immediate family members. Pearson's correlation was used to test this and other hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1A was supported. Internet use was found to have a significant negative correlation with face-to-face communication with family (r = - .137, p < .01). In other words, the more respondents logged onto the Internet, the less time they spent with family, or vice-versa.

When possible extraneous variables, such as gender, ethnic background, and family income, were controlled for, the correlation between Internet use and face-to-face communication with family was still significant (r = - .127, p <. 01). Partial correlation was used to control potential extraneous variables.

Hypothesis 1B. Hypothesis 1B stated that the more teenagers use the Internet, the less face-to-face communication they had with their friends. Hypothesis 1B was not supported as no significant correlation (r = - .032, p > .05) was found between the amount of time spent online and the amount of time spent on face-to-face communication with friends.

What is the relationship between Internet use and the Internet users' desire for face-to-face communication? This question represents the heart of this study.

Hypothesis 2A. Hypothesis 2A stated that the more teenagers used the Internet, the less desire they had for face- to-face communication with their family members. Hypothesis 2A was supported (r = - .120, p < .01). The results showed that there is a statistically significant relation between Internet use and decreases in desire for face-to-face communication with family.

When gender, ethnic background, and family income were controlled for, respectively, a significant negative correlation still existed between daily Internet use and desire for face-to-face communication with family. When gender, ethnic background, and family income were controlled altogether, the correlation coefficient was still significant (r = - .118, p < .05).

Twenty-five percent of respondents reported decreases in desire for face-to-face communication with family, as opposed to just about 10% who reported increases. The decrease-to-increase ratio is much bigger in heavy Internet users (who used the Internet more than 89.4 minutes a day, which is the mean of total respondents' daily Internet use time). About 33% of heavy users reported increases, as opposed to only about 9% who reported decreases. The decrease-to-increase ratio in light users was 20% to 11%.

Hypothesis 2B. Hypothesis 2B stated that the more teenagers used the Internet, the less desire they had for face-to-face communication with their friends. Hypothesis 2B was not supported (r = -. 021, p > .05). Controlling for gender, ethnic background, and family income did not make much of a difference even though it turned the correlation from negative to positive. Pearson's correlation coefficient still stood at .019 (p > .05). This finding means that Internet use does not have a significant bearing upon desire for face-to-face communication with friends.

Discussion and Conclusions

To most respondents, the Internet is no longer a new technology. Nearly four in five respondents had used the Internet for at least three years at the time of the study. About 40% of the teenagers reported using the Internet for five years or longer, whereas only five respondents had less than one year of experience with the Internet. Significantly, all of the teenagers surveyed reported using the Internet. The 100% adoption rate is close to the finding of UCLA Center for Communication Policy, 2003). The UCLA study found that 97% of respondents 16 to 18 in age were Internet users in 2002. Expectedly, the results confirmed the existence of a significant disparity among four ethnic groups in Internet access at home, F (3,343) = 10.7, p < .01) and in length of Internet experience, F (4, 343) = 2.93, p < .05. Ninety percent of white (Caucasian) students had Internet access at home, compared to 67% for African-Americans, and 79% for Hispanics. Notably, all 18 Asians surveyed reported having Internet access at home The results also showed that the higher family income the teenagers had, the more likely they had Internet access at home, F (4, 342) = 15.6, p < .01).

The results of this study supported the findings of previous studies (e.g., Fairlie, 2002) on the so-called digital divide in Internet access. The Fairlie study reported that African-Americans and Hispanics trailed white Caucasians in access to the Internet at home, and Hispanics used the Internet the least among all major ethnic groups.

On face-to-face communication with family, daily Internet use was the only negative significant predictor (β = -.107, p < .05). The finding suggests that the more time the teenagers spent online, the less time they spent with their family. Neither Internet experience nor family income had a significant impact on the teenagers' face-to-face communication with family.

Discussions of Testing Research Hypotheses

This study found that Internet use was significantly linked to decreases in face-to-face communication with family as hypothesized (Hypothesis 1A), but was not significantly related to amount of face-to-face communication with friends as hypothesized (Hypothesis 1B).

The results supported the finding of some earlier studies (e.g., Kraut et al., 1998; National Public Radio et al. 2000; Nie & Erbring, 2000) that the more people use the Internet, the less time they spend time with family. At the same time, the results contradicted the findings of the UCLA Center for Communication Policy (2003) that the Internet had no significant impact on the amount of time the users spent with family.

Interestingly, Caucasian boys were most likely to use the Internet at the sacrifice of the time spent with family (r = - . 214, p < .01), whereas African- American girls were least likely to give up time spent with family to go online (r = - . 078, p > .05). The girls spent more time with family than boys by 183 minutes to 152 minutes. The mean was 167 minutes.

By ethnic background, African-Americans had significantly more face-toface communication with family. African-Americans reported spending an average of 191 minutes on face-to-face communication with family, compared to 158 minutes for Caucasians, 152 minutes for Hispanics, and 120 minutes for Asians. As expected, the heavy Internet users were more likely (r = - .128, p< .05) to sacrifice their time spent with family to use the Internet than the light users (r = - .035, p > .05). Girls also spent more time with friends than did boys, and African-Americans spent more time with friends than other ethnic groups. Girls reported spending an average of 141 minutes with friends, compared with 134 minutes for boys, and African-Americans reported having an average of 168 minutes of face-to-face communication with friends, compared to 134 minutes for Caucasians, 116 minutes for Asians, and 84 minutes for Hispanics.

In sum, the findings of this study, at best, only partly support the time-displacement theory, the key theoretical background of this study, that posited that if people start a new activity, they will have to quit or reduce some of their old activities. Consistent with the time-displacement theory, the respondents in this study were spending time online at the sacrifice of time with their family.

Internet Use and Desire for Face-to-Face communication

The Internet has cut into not only the actual amount of time spent on face-to-face communication with family, but also desire for face-to-face communication with family as hypothesized (Hypothesis 2A). This study found a significant negative correlation (r = - .120, p < .01) between the amount of time spent online and desire for face-to-face communication with family. In other words, the more people used the Internet, the less desire they had for face-to-face communication with family.

The decrease in desire among the teenagers for face-to-face communication did not mean a corresponding decrease in the actual amount of time they spent with their family. The results showed that the teenagers' desire for face-to-face communication with family members was not significantly associated (r = .049, p > .05) with the actual amount of time they reported spending with their family. It may be speculated that the teenagers may have to spend time with their family regardless of their desire for spending time with them because they still are dependent on their family, more specifically their parents, for financial and other needs.

While daily Internet use was found to have a significant impact on the teenagers' desire for face-to-face communication with family, it was not found to have a significant impact upon desire for face-to-face communication with friends (r = -.021, p > .05). These results were consistent with the earlier finding of this study that Internet use did not have any significant impact on the amount of face-to-face communication with friends.

In conclusion, teenagers were going online at the risk of losing not only the time that they spent with family, but also desire for social interaction with family. This shows that use of the Internet was displacing not only the time they spend with their family, but also their desire for having social interaction with family.

Limitations of This Study

The greatest limitation of this study involves the inadequate sampling method which is inherent in many survey studies. Because the sample was not randomly selected, the outcome of this study can not be generalized to other demographic groups. While the use of non-random sampling may present a limitation, it may also become a strength.

This study sampled students of a local high school with a primary purpose of controlling extraneous variables, such as age, education, and Internet access at school. In fact, some previous studies (e.g., Kraut et al., 1998) found that these demographic factors were extraneous variables in this type of Internet study.

Another major limitation is that this study is based on a cross-sectional survey instead of a longitudinal one, which may get a more accurate picture of respondents' patterns of Internet use and daily off-line behaviors, such as face-to-face communication with family and friends. Because this study was designed to investigate teenagers' pattern of Internet use and other daily activities, a longitudinal survey would be desirable over a one-time cross-sectional survey. In a cross-sectional survey, some respondents' unusual one-time behavior, such as excessive Internet use or unusually long face-to-face communication, can distort the outcome of the entire survey, particularly when the respondents are asked to report their Internet usage and the time spent with family and friends on the previous day, as this study did. Such a problem could be minimized in a longitudinal survey.

Another major limitation of this study is that it was heavily dependent on respondents' self-reports for measuring key variables such as desire for face-to-face communication, instead of using an established measurement scale though one did not exist. In fact, heavy dependence on subjects' self-reporting has long been criticized as a major shortcoming of uses and gratifications studies. With such criticism in mind, this study made efforts to help the respondents answer questions as accurately as possible. One of the efforts was using a 5-point Likert-type scale instead of more complex 7-point or 10-point scales. It was based on the assumption that, though respondents may not be able to put a numerical value on their desire for face-to-face communication with others because of the absence of a scale to do the measurement, they may be able to fairly accurately tell whether the desire has increased or decreased by "a lot" or by "a little" or remained "unchanged."

Significance of This Study

This study is important for several reasons. First and most significantly, this study apparently is the first major reported research investigating the relationship between Internet use and the desire for face-to-face communication. A few research results (e.g., Nie & Erbring, 2000) have been reported on the impact of the Internet use on face-to-face communication, but none of the previous studies has looked into how Internet use affects desire for face-to-face communication. Investigating whether Internet use increases or decreases desire for face-to-face communication with others, particularly family, may be more important than finding out whether Internet use increases or decreases amount of face-to-face communication. In an ever-busy modern life, people may not be able to find as much time to spend with family as they want. A problem exists if people want to spend time with their family, but they cannot do so because of work or for other compelling reasons.

However, the problem is vastly greater if people do not spend time with family because they have lost the desire for doing so. Without the desire, they may no longer have genuine family discussions. For this reason, this study's finding of Internet use's association with loss of desire among teenagers for face-to-face communication with family is important. This study found that the more time the teenagers spent online, the less desire they showed for face-to-face communication with family and for doing homework. The results suggest that Internet use may displace not only teenagers' time to do some of their key daily activities, such as face-to-face communication with, but also their desire for doing them.

Suggestions for Future Research

If Internet use has changed people's desire for face-to-face communication, as this study found, the change would certainly not have been made overnight. The change toward either an increase or a decrease would most likely have been formed over a long period of time. In that sense, a one-time survey as was used by this study may not be the best method to investigate such a change. A longitudinal survey or a panel study would be a more appropriate research method.

Some modifications are recommended to be made on the way questions are asked, if the questionnaire used by this study is replicated. For instance, on the amount of time spent online, respondents may be given a range of amount of time (for example 1) zero, 2) under 30 minutes, 3) 30 minutes-one hour, 4) 1-3 hours, 5) over 3 hours), and be asked to choose one that best suits them, instead of being asked to report an exact amount of time that they think they spent online. The reason for this suggestion is that most people have a hard time accurately remembering how much time they spent with the Internet or with their family.

Because people's personality traits (e.g., introvert/extrovert, reticence, low self-esteem) are directly linked to their interpersonal communication behaviors (Burgoon, 1976), loneliness (Russell, 1996) and Internet use, these personality factors should be investigated in a future study. It is almost intuitive that the introvert may be less willing to communicate with others than the extrovert because the introvert is characteristically shy and withdrawing from others. A future study also needs to take into account the respondents' (if the study is a survey) family relationships because relationships with family members may be again intuitively closely linked to the amount of family communication. Family relationship may be the best predictor of family communication because the relationship is to establish communication (Littlejohn, 1996). It is also suggested that a future study measure family communication in both quantity and quality because quality, which this study failed to measure, should be as important as quantity in any communication. To measure both quantity and quality of family communication, an alternative method of study such as directly observing family interactions may be considered. Personality traits may be a predictor of online behaviors (Scealy, Philips, & Stevenson, 2002; Swickert et al., 2001). The two studies found that shy people and introverts were more likely to use the Internet for leisure than extroverts.

Conclusions

Time-displacement theory quite intuitively posited that if people start a new activity or begin to use a new technology, they will have to quit or reduce the time spent with old activities or old technologies. Consistent with the theory, this study found,

Internet use was significantly associated with a decrease in desire for face-to-face communication with family. In other words, the more time teenagers spent online, the less desire they had for seeing and talking with their immediate family members. Some people may argue that it might be the reverse: The less desire teenagers have for interacting with their family, the more they go online. The reverse could be true, but this study asked the respondents clearly whether the Internet has increased or decreased or not changed their desire for face-to-face communication with family. These findings indicate that the Internet may not only reduce the time people spend with their immediate family, but also may even change their attitude toward family and make them withdraw from their parents and other immediate family members. To support this view, this study also found that decreases in the desire for face-to-face communication with family were significantly associated with using the Internet for escape. In other words, as teenagers spend more time online, they lose desire for spending time with their parents and other family members and try to find an escape in cyberspace.

Finally, for some people, the findings of this study about the Internet's adverse impact on desire for social interaction with family may sound like a doomsday story. After all, the Internet is a tool and a technology at people's disposal. By no means are they obliged to use it, though admittedly they need to use it often at work or for homework or for personal communication. As the results of this study may indicate, the Internet itself is not a problem. The real problem is how people use it. As the results showed, people who go online to avoid contact with others and to escape from the real world may be more likely to lose the desire for social interaction even with their family. As McKenna and Bargh (2000) aptly opined, the Internet may only be what the users make of it. In other words, the Internet could become a great social technology to help people to connect with others and to expand their social horizon. At the same time, the Internet could become a socially isolating technology if people use it to avoid contact with people around them and to escape from the real world. All in all, the Internet is a technology still changing at a blazing speed, and it may be still premature to determine it as either a socializing technology or isolating one.

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Impact of the Internet on Teenagers' Face-to-Face Communication

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Young Soo Shim* Southern Illinois University Carbondale *Corresponding Author: Young Soo Shim College of Mass Communication and Media Arts In the Graduate School Southern Illinois University Carbondale Phone: 618-453-7924 Email: mir7924@siu.edu Visit for more related articles at Global Media Journal This study investigated the relationship between teenagers' Internet use and their interpersonal communication behavior - most of all, whether Internet use was associated with the teens' loss of desire for face-to-face communication with family and friends.

# data[].attributes.body
Title: Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem
Source: American Psychological Association
DOI: None
Credibility Evaluation: Group 1 (Scholarly Books and Articles)