The Paradox of Social Media: Self-Esteem Among Young Adults in India

Abstract: The world of technology has expanded swiftly and enormously since its origin. It has changed the ways in which youth interact, connect, and share with one another. Social media has a power that has long lasting effects on people and leads to change in behaviour. As the number of social media sites and applications keep going on the rise, so does their use by adolescents. During youth, children are witnessing the process of identity development and self- esteem is an important part of this development. During this experimental period, adolescents’ self- esteem is most likely to be moulded by the feedback they receive online through their consumption of various social media sites. Adolescence and young adulthood are pivotal stage in development where youth usually being to create their own identity and form meaningful connections, but social media usage of youngsters can impact on this area of their development hence this paper examines the relationship between the social media and its impact on self-esteem of youngsters. A viable hypothesis that has been used in the present research study is that there is a relation between social media and the self-esteem of youngsters. To test out this hypothesis a correlational analysis was conducted on a sample of 100 youngsters between the ages 18-24. According to the results of current research study, approximately 30% of the people use social media for at least 30 minutes in a day. 51% use social media for 1-3 hours a day. 15% people use social media for 3-5 hours a day. 4% people use social media for more than 5 hours a day. There is a clear link between individuals' self-esteem and their use of social media. More so that increased social media usage is negatively linked Both of these variables are significant.