Networking dilemma
Date of Publishing:24/9/2010
Location:Hyderabad
Teenagers contradict a recent study saying youngsters suffering from low self-esteem spend hours on Facebook.recent study reveals that most youngsters on Facebook have low self-esteem and upload pictures and update their statuses in a bid to promote themselves on a public forum.
It seems that the networking site's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg had the same problem. A movie on his life and on Facebook relates the story of how Zuckerberg was a socially off-key youngster who, after being dumped by his girlfriend, found refuge in his computer, thus setting in motion the events leading to the creation of Facebook.
However, contrary to the study, many teens feel the site is meant for socially active people rather than the ones with low self-esteem.
"It is a social networking site, of course it is meant for networking with friends and not for socially inept people. On a forum where one could meet new people, why would someone with low self-esteem want to have a profile and flaunt their photos? Only introverts avoid Facebook.
Whatever happens in my life, I publicise it on Facebook. If I was low on self-esteem why would I even try doing that?" asks Sanya Ansari, a 19-year-old.
Some feel that Facebook has in fact become a forum for attention seekers who go to great lengths to attract a few photo or status comments to their profile and photo-shopped pictures.
They say Facebook has now become an open forum to share fancy pictures for selfobsessed people. “Some people go overboard uploading thousands of photos.
It is acceptable if you have gone on a trip and want to show your friends how much fun you had. I feel those who upload too many pictures of themselves and reveal every detail of their lives are way too much in love with themselves.
They are extroverts and irritating. They are surely not low on self-esteem,” reveals Shruti Nair.
So what can be called social network PDA has not gone down well with those who don’t exercise it. Some teenagers say Facebook is also a place where sympa thy seekers can be comforted. Updating one's status over petty issues only to get friends to join them in the hue and cry looks like the latest trend among teenagers. "Some of my friends log on only to update sad status messages, like how miserable they are feeling about some tiny incident that happened in their life or a break-up they had. They love getting sym pathy from other friends and being in the spotlight.
Talking publicly about your ex or a break-up requires guts. If they are low on self-esteem why would they want the whole world to know that someone left them?” retorts Poonam Totala, a student of Villa Marie college.
Though a majority of teenagers think Facebook mates are attention and sympathy seekers and low self-esteem doesn’t find any place on the networking site, some of them give a different picture saying they’d rather keep away from Facebook while going through heartbreak or a bad patch. "When faced with a break-up, I wouldn't want to update my status or upload pictures and look at anyone else’s. In such situations, I just make my own cocoon and hibernate. I would never want to see my ex in pictures with hot girls. I find it very disturbing. That's one time when I’d want to be left alone and wouldn’t want to talk to anyone about anything," said Navra Izhar, a 19-year-old.
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