Social comparison of young men : the role social media influencers

Abstract

This study aims to highlight social media influencers’ (SMIs) role in social comparison, having young men as the target audience. Existing research published on SMIs and its impact are mainly focused on women. Studies focused on men and SMIs cover the topics of bodybuilding and body idealisation. This study’s main objective is to highlight SMIs role in social comparison. The researcher’s main goal was to thoroughly analyse both the positive and negative effects to conclude the overall impact SMIs have on young men. It has been determined that if current or known SMI trends persist in social media platforms, the impact may be more harmful than beneficial. This study attempts to carefully and appropriately evaluate the impact of SMIs and mitigate them to avoid adverse effects on society. The results of this research are essential and will be used to show the overall impact of SMIs on the day-to-day lives of many young men. For this study, the researcher opted for the social comparison theory as the study’s theoretical framework. This theory points out that people use the comparison process to create an effective benchmark to develop accurate evaluations (Guyer & Vaughan-Johnston, 2018). This theory process begins when individuals decide to learn about themselves by evaluating their traits, beliefs, opinions, and attitudes to others. The social comparison theory points out that people use the comparison process to create an effective benchmark to develop accurate evaluations. The underlying motivations for social comparisons include maintaining positive self-evaluation (downward comparison) and self-enhancement (upward comparison). The researcher discussed the existing literature on social media, the effectiveness of social media, drawbacks of social media, SMIs, and types of social media influencers and introduced the correlation between social media and young men. Regarding the research methodology for the current study, the philosophical paradigm followed was interpretivism. The approach to theory development chosen was the deducted approach. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach where 20 young men aged 18-26 years old, both from Mozambique and South Africa, were interviewed. For this research, the researcher opted for thematic analysis because it was the most flexible approach to generate mindful insights and concepts from the collected data. This study showed that young men with lower self-esteem are more likely to use strategies to boost their confidence and those with high self-esteem are likely to use strategies to maintain it. These results support previous studies that stated that people with high self-esteem are more likely to engage in self-enhancement as people with lower self-esteem avoid engaging in social comparison. The results also show that young men often used SMIs to push themselves to work harder. Data analysis determined that social media influencers influence participants according to their personal development goals and interests. The in-depth analysis also determined that appearance, purchase behaviour, and motivation were the most common answers on how social media influencers influence young men. The data collected showed that all study participants were aware of possible risks associated with SMIs. The participants believe that young men in today’s age can be easily influenced to promote or endorse dangerous political ideologies and beliefs. The study also determined that the unrealistic content created by SMIs might cause envy and depression due to exposure to desirable attributes. This is due to social pressure to follow the existing trends created by social media influencers. The findings of this research can lead to new lines of inquiry due to the limitations faced by the researcher. The researcher was also able to determine that future research should explore issues like how posts or images posted on social media platforms by SMIs may be less impactful to young men compared to women. Future research could compare their responses across all social media platforms and look at the possibility that young men are somewhat protected from any risks and effects of social media exposure regarding appearance. Future research should dive into these possibilities. Assessing the impact of social media influencers on young men’s lives focus on broader age gaps. SMIs impact must be carefully and appropriately evaluated and mitigated to avoid adverse effects on society.