Self-esteem

It is understood as the self-evaluation of one’s worth and a type of self regard. In whole the ‘self-esteem’ is part of the ‘self-concept’, which is the all of the feelings and thoughts that one has about themselves. Controlling what we put out there on social media can alter what our self-esteem can be. It can be understood as the ability to consider and make use of positive and negative feedback that we receive. It can be about what works well and what could possibly be improved. Self-esteem can be high when one does well and vice-versa. Confusion about self-esteem comes from both scarcity (among the insecure) and overabundance (among narcissists). One theory mentions the idea that when someone views their own Facebook, their profile “enhances self-esteem because people can selectively control what is presented there”. Urban Dictionary’s definition of “self-esteem”: “a picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to Facebook, Myspace, or any other sort of social networking website…”. It can also be the idea of flattery vs. feedback.

Works Cited

Excerpt from Joseph Reagle, Reading the Comments pgs. 121-134 [PDF on Dropbox]