It facilitates flirtation, announces marriages and sparks divorce. It allows for poking friends, befriending strangers and etching on the walls of loved ones without getting off the couch.

To say Facebook is just a website is downplaying its all-encompassing presence in our lives. It’s my go-to tool for cyber communication, procrastination and the occasional stalk-fest. Recent scholarly studies, however, reveal how the social networking tool affects more than our productivity.

In a study published Feb. 24 in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, researchers compared three groups of college students in a lab for three minutes. Students in the first group stared at blank computer screens; those in the second group looked in the mirror; and the students in the third group spent their time looking at their Facebook profiles. After three minutes, the participants were given an assessment for self-esteem. The researchers found the students in the Facebook group experienced a spike in self-esteem, but the other students experienced no noticeable change in how they felt about themselves. 

It’s no surprise the acts of admiring your carefully selected profile pictures and scanning your wall to read the accumulation of kind messages can cover up any self-worth blemishes. But what about when you venture to other people’s profiles and discover they are prettier and have more friends, thoroughly decorated walls and accepted event invitations than you’ve ever received? 

Another article, published in the January 2011 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, concluded that looking at other people’s Facebook pages can cause us to believe they have better, more exciting lives than we do. The never-ending list of exuberant status updates flooding my newsfeed while I’m having a bad day doesn’t exactly improve my mood’s status. A simple session of procrastination can quickly turn into a downward spiral of self-deprecation and pity. Who would’ve thought a few clicks could lead to decreased self-appreciation or an inflated ego, all depending on whose profile you’re looking at?

The debate about whether Facebook is a help or hindrance to good mental health is difficult to settle. From my experience, the results of both studies are valid. When several friends leave kind comments or ‘like’ my attempts at witty status updates, it momentarily validates that my goal of being a humorous writer isn’t necessarily far-fetched. I feel pretty great about myself until photos from a friend’s Spring Break pops onto my screen, featuring a bikini-clad high school classmate with a six-pack frolicking through my newsfeed. I instantaneously feel bloated and simultaneously regret throwing back spoonfuls of Ben and Jerry’s and attending Syracuse University instead of somewhere with sunlight. 

Be it their weekend social life, relationship status, physical appearance or lack of favorite books, people have things they wish were different about them. Facebook can potentially illuminate these self-declared flaws every time we log in. Preventing Facebook from taking the reins on our self-esteem and general mental health is as easy as moving your mouse. I may be Facebook friends with my second grade neighbor’s stepsister’s best friend, but my accepted friend request doesn’t come with jurisdiction over my self-esteem. If you pass the time by profile browsing as I do, remember it’s highly probable someone with the wardrobe of your dreams is probably looking on jealously at your pending Syracuse degree and impressively clever status updates right now. At least that’s what I’d like to think.  

Alicia Smith is a graduate student in the magazine, newspaper and online journalism program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her column appears every Thursday. Look for her on Facebook, but if you can’t find her there, you can contact her at acsmit05@syr.edu.

Published on March 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm