Shuhan Jia
ENGH 122 DP2
Marissa Mack; Patrick Moore
July 9, 2019
The effects of using Facebook among international students: Envy and negative well-being
Thanks to the technology nowadays, international students can communicate with their family, friends and even lover far away from their home. There are many different kinds of social media or social networking site such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Since Facebook is the most popular social networking site by a lot of users in the world, this paper is going to aim at the influence on international students’ well-being by using Facebook. A study showed that the total number of Facebook users grow each day according to Facebook’s own data (Tromholt, 2016). It was believed that there were 1.59 billion users in 2015. There is also evidence showing that Facebook is the most widespread social media of the time (Tromholt, 2016).
International students not only use Facebook to communicate with family, friends and lover, but also to know people’s life stories through the posts on Facebook. However, this comparison of personal life story leads to envy feeling. A study illustrated that using Facebook can lead students to have low level of well-being because it evokes feelings of envy (Tromholt, 2016). Facebook users develop the feeling of envy because of social information and social comparison on Facebook. For instance, people focus on how much of others have seen and liked their photos and posts, how successful others are and how happy they are (Tromholt, 2016). These comparison lead users to feel competitive and unhappy with their life. Nevertheless, international students do not always see this negative effect behind social media use. They pay high attention on how many likes or followers on Facebook. If there are a few likes or friends on Facebook, they feel disappointed and upset.
What surprising is that international students use Facebook as a tool to release their stress and gain positive energy in some ways. There is evidence showing that happiness can spread through the news updates on online social media networks (Lin & Utz, 2015). However, recent studies also show that “exposure to positive posts on Facebook may induce envy and lead to depression” (Lin & Utz, 2015, p. 29). Using Facebook will create positive and negative feeling among international students, and the effects of well-being depend on how students use it. Facebook use helps international students “adjust to the US culture and feel psychological comfort” (Park, Song & Lee, 2014, p. 144). In addition, international students can use Facebook in a positive way to improve others’ well-being. They can become a positive digital leader to improve others’ lives and well-being (Miller, 2018). In this article, how social media creates positive or negative feelings and how do these feelings affect one’s happiness are the questions that I will answer in this research paper.
Before we go into the topic, let’s think about well-being. What is well-being? Recently, there are many researches on well-being. According to Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan (2008), there are two perspectives of well-being—one is eudaimonic well-being and the other is hedonic well-being. First, it is believed that well-being is subjective (Deci & Ryan, 2008). Subjective well-being means to experience a high level of positive affect and low level of negative affect. A person who has a high level of satisfaction with their life is considered to have a high level of subjective well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2008). Deci and Ryan (2008) also stated that subjective well-being is associated with hedonistic well-being. It has been considered the idea of happiness while eudaimonia is associated with one’s fulfillment and living well (Deci & Ryan, 2008). In this research paper, I will mostly consider eudaimonic well-being of Facebook users.
Information such as personal story is always showed on Facebook. Bauer, McAdams and Pals (2008) stated that people who have higher level of eudaimonic well-being seem to emphasize their personal growth in their life stories. They also stated that “happiness is ultimately a subjective appraisal of one’s life as happy” (p. 81). It means eudaimonic well-being is associated with life stories, and it causes narrative identity. Narrative identity refers to “the internal, dynamic life story that individual constructs to make sense of his or her life” (Bauer, McAdams & Pals, 2008, p. 81). This identity is believed to tie closely to “the subjective interpretation of oneself as happy” (Bauer, McAdams a& Pals, 2008, p. 81).
Narrative identity and life stories also involve growth and human development. There are two different well-beings that can affect human happiness. Hedonic well-being is subjective while eudaimonic well-being is related to one’s satisfaction, and this satisfaction comes from one’s life story and personal growth. Therefore, this article is going to discuss about the eudaimonic well-being of international students.
According to Lin and Utz (2015), there are over 1.35 billion active users on Facebook and there are “on average 1500 active potential stories for users to check per visit” (p. 29). Students now use Facebook to get information around them and there are recent studies indicate that happiness can spread through the news updates on social media while positive posts on Facebook can cause envy and depression (Lin & Utz, 2015). Although Facebook really improves human life and makes communication with people more convenience as two or more persons can get connected in different countries and places, and people do not need to write letter now, there is negative impact on using Facebook. Tromholt (2016) reported that people who do not use Facebook for one week have high level of life satisfaction than people who use Facebook daily.
The experiment’s result illustrated that how people use Facebook is related to life satisfaction. It is believed that it is not necessary to quit using Facebook to gain happiness or high level of well-being, but to depend on how to use it. Different people have different habits of using Facebook. For instance, if one feels envy on Facebook, one can avoid browsing this specific friend on Facebook that causing envy. And if one uses Facebook frequently, one should use less on Facebook. Using Facebook leads to declines in well-being as it evokes feelings of envy (Tromholt, 2016). Facebook users develop the feelings of envy easily because of social information and social comparison of Facebook.
Facebook users focus on how much of the others have seen and liked their photos and posts, what others have accomplished for their life, and how successful they are. All these comparison to others leads international students to feel stress, competitive and unhappiness. Park, Song and Lee (2014) did an experiment about Facebook use, individual differences on Korean and Chinese college students’ acculturative stress and psychological well-being. According to Park, Song and Lee (2014), “students who used Facebook only had the lowest acculturative stress, whereas those who did not use any SNS had the highest acculturative stress” (p. 142). The findings show that Facebook use helps international students “adjust to the U.S. culture and feel psychological comfort” (p. 144). Since there are many information that students can find on Facebook, they can adjust to U.S. cultures easily. For example, they meet new friends who are Americans, and they can communicate and practice English through Facebook so that to feel more comfortable and relaxed in adjusting U.S. cultures. However, individual differences also play an important role in international students’ acculturative stress and psychological well-being.
The authors explained that individual differences include personality trait such as extraversion, academic achievement stress, years of stay in the U.S. and English competence (2014). The study shows that the personality trait such as one who is opening and optimistic has negative relation with acculturative stress and positive relation with psychological well-being while the academic achievement stress has opposite result. International students have stress in academic achievement because of language barrier and the mode of exam and test, the test system may be a little bit different from their own countries. In addition, years of stay in U.S. is associated negatively with acculturative stress while English competence is positively associated with psychological well-being. Therefore, using Facebook leads to low level of cognitive and affective well-being, but if we change the bad habits when using Facebook, it can improve our life satisfaction and high level of well-being, even can improve others’ well-being too.Information such as personal story is always showed on Facebook. Bauer, McAdams and Pals (2008) stated that people who have higher level of eudaimonic well-being seem to emphasize their personal growth in their life stories.
They also stated that “happiness is ultimately a subjective appraisal of one’s life as happy” (p. 81). It means eudaimonic well-being is associated with life stories, and it causes narrative identity. Narrative identity refers to “the internal, dynamic life story that individual constructs to make sense of his or her life” (Bauer, McAdams & Pals, 2008, p. 81). This identity is believed to tie closely to “the subjective interpretation of oneself as happy” (Bauer, McAdams a& Pals, 2008, p. 81). Narrative identity and life stories also involve growth and human development. There are two different well-beings that can affect human happiness. Hedonic well-being is subjective while eudaimonic well-being is related to one’s satisfaction, and this satisfaction comes from one’s life story and personal growth. Therefore, this article is going to discuss about the eudaimonic well-being of international students.
According to Lin and Utz (2015), there are over 1.35 billion active users on Facebook and there are “on average 1500 active potential stories for users to check per visit” (p. 29). Students now use Facebook to get information around them and there are recent studies indicate that happiness can spread through the news updates on social media while positive posts on Facebook can cause envy and depression (Lin & Utz, 2015). Although Facebook really improves human life and makes communication with people more convenience as two or more persons can get connected in different countries and places, and people do not need to write letter now, there is negative impact on using Facebook. Tromholt (2016) reported that people who do not use Facebook for one week have high level of life satisfaction than people who use Facebook daily.
The experiment’s result illustrated that how people use Facebook is related to life satisfaction. It is believed that it is not necessary to quit using Facebook to gain happiness or high level of well-being, but to depend on how to use it. Different people have different habits of using Facebook. For instance, if one feels envy on Facebook, one can avoid browsing this specific friend on Facebook that causing envy. And if one uses Facebook frequently, one should use less on Facebook. Using Facebook leads to declines in well-being as it evokes feelings of envy (Tromholt, 2016). Facebook users develop the feelings of envy easily because of social information and social comparison of Facebook. Facebook users focus on how much of the others have seen and liked their photos and posts, what others have accomplished for their life, and how successful they are. All these comparison to others leads international students to feel stress, competitive and unhappiness. Park, Song and Lee (2014) did an experiment about Facebook use, individual differences on Korean and Chinese college students’ acculturative stress and psychological well-being.
According to Park, Song and Lee (2014), “students who used Facebook only had the lowest acculturative stress, whereas those who did not use any SNS had the highest acculturative stress” (p. 142). The findings show that Facebook use helps international students “adjust to the U.S. culture and feel psychological comfort” (p. 144). Since there are many information that students can find on Facebook, they can adjust to U.S. cultures easily. For example, they meet new friends who are Americans, and they can communicate and practice English through Facebook so that to feel more comfortable and relaxed in adjusting U.S. cultures. However, individual differences also play an important role in international students’ acculturative stress and psychological well-being.
The authors explained that individual differences include personality trait such as extraversion, academic achievement stress, years of stay in the U.S. and English competence (2014). The study shows that the personality trait such as one who is opening and optimistic has negative relation with acculturative stress and positive relation with psychological well-being while the academic achievement stress has opposite result. International students have stress in academic achievement because of language barrier and the mode of exam and test, the test system may be a little bit different from their own countries. In addition, years of stay in U.S. is associated negatively with acculturative stress while English competence is positively associated with psychological well-being. Therefore, using Facebook leads to low level of cognitive and affective well-being, but if we change the bad habits when using Facebook, it can improve our life satisfaction and high level of well-being, even can improve others’ well-being too.
Research has showed that using Facebook leads to negative feelings among students, but it also gives positive energy to others if students use Facebook properly. Miller (2018) stated that in order to improve lives and well-being of others, students can become positive digital leaders to achieve this goal. However, before becoming a positive digital leader, one should have digital citizenship first. According to Miller (2018) “digital citizenship is the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use” (p. 45).
In other words, students who use Internet and social media in a responsible and ethical manner have digital citizenship. For example, students who are responsible of what they have said on Facebook is a good sign that these students have digital citizenship, and these students do not say insult or offensive words online. In addition, in order to understand how digital citizenship leads to digital leadership, Sylvia Duckworth and Jennifer Casa-Todd provide a “sketch note showing the idea behind this shift” (Miller, 2018, p. 47). Research stated that “digital leadership is defined as using the vast reach of technology to improve the lives, well-beings, and circumstances of others” (p. 46). It means that students who are responsible and have ethical manner on social media use and can improve others’ well-being have digital leadership. To use social media to become positive digital leader, one can do this by “empowering others who have no voice,” “addressing social inequality,” and “promoting important cause,” “learning and sharing their learning” and finally “being a more positive influence in the lives of others” (Miller, 2018, p. 46). This research has showed that one has digital citizenship and positive digital leadership can improve others’ well-being through social media such as Facebook.
Facebook is a popular social media throughout the world. Although international students can now use Facebook to get connected with family and friends who are far away from them, using Facebook can cause negative well-being and develop a feeling of envy and depression (Tromholt, 2016). Since international students might face challenges and difficulties in their academic study such as English barrier, the different educational system, and interrelationship with foreigners, they compare others’ life stories with their friends on Facebook. This comparison of success academic achievement or personal life causes competitive and jealous among international students. Therefore, using Facebook leads to negative well-being. However, it can also help others to improve well-being and lead to positive happiness by becoming an ethnic Facebook user. Therefore, students should be aware of what they say on Facebook and should not say any offensive and insult words because these words will make others to get hurt.
In this paper, international students will understand that how Facebook affects their eudaimonic well-being and what they can do to give positive energy to others on Facebook. However, although there are researches on the impact of using Facebook, and many of the researchers stated that using Facebook will lead to negative well-being, how much time on using Facebook is not discussed through the researches and experiments. Therefore, in the future research, researchers and scholars should focus on the timing of using Facebook because it might also a fact and reason that cause international students to have negative feelings and depression.
References
Bauer, J. J., McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. (2008). Narrative identity and eudaimonic well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 81-104.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: An introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1-11.
Lin, R., & Utz, S. (2015). The emotional responses of browsing Facebook: Happiness, envy, and the role of tie strength. Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 29–38.
Miller, C. (2018). Digital Leadership: Using the Internet and Social Media to Improve the Lives, Well-Being and Circumstances of Others. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 110(1), 45–48. https://doi.org/10.14307/JFCS110.1.45
Manago, A., Taylor, T., & Greenfield, P. (2012). Me and My 400 Friends: The Anatomy of College Students’ Facebook Networks, Their Communication Patterns, and Well-Being. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 369–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026338
Park, N., Song, H., & Lee, K. (2014). Social networking sites and other media use, acculturation stress, and psychological well-being among East Asian college students in the United States. Computers in Human Behavior, 36(C), 138–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.037
Tromholt, M. (2016). The Facebook Experiment: Quitting Facebook Leads to Higher Levels of Well-Being. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 19(11), 661–666. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2016.0259
