Story by Selena Legaspy
Copy Editor
Adriana Ponce let her more than 520 “friends” know how she felt Sunday night.
“Now watching Pretty In Pink and boys are stupid,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
She said she likes updating her status every three hours or so.
“I think I’m an interesting person so people should care,” she said. “When [statuses are] commented or liked, I feel like someone actually cares and is listening.”
Two recent university studies suggest that Ponce might be on to something.
According to a recent study from Ohio State University, teens have a need to feel good about themselves, which often supersedes other desires. This has left researchers wondering if this generation’s teens are addicted to Facebook updates to boost their self-esteems.
“It is somewhat surprising how the desire to feel worthy and valuable trumps almost any other pleasant activity you can imagine,” lead researcher Brad Bushman said in a press release.
Teens are prone to turn to sex, alcohol and drugs to fluff their egos because those things are often easily accessible, he wrote.
At Amat, students constantly visit Facebook to update statuses, post pictures and videos and to make sure they don’t miss red flag notifications.
Students, like junior Lauren Lakin, also share much of their personal information.
Lakin’s favorite books are “Green Eggs and Ham,” “When It Happens,” and “The Webster Dictionary.”
Her top movies are “Superstar,” “The Hangover,” “Napoleon Dynamite,” “Paranormal Activity,” and “Mean Girls.”
She also watches TV shows “Tosh.0,” “Jersey Shore,” “Sponge Bob Square Pants,” “My Life As Liz,” and “Nitro Circus.”
In total, more than 200 people have “liked” her favorites.
So why does she share so much information? Is it to boost her self-esteem?
“This way they know who I am and it makes me feel good when people actually like and can relate to me,” Lakin said.
One of the most common complaints about Facebook is that members update their statuses with mundane activities.
On Saturday, junior Madison Ellis posted a status update telling her friends that she’ll be out taking pictures all day.
“Busy day… photoshoots!” she wrote.
“I like posting what’s on my mind,” she said. “It’s what everyone else does.”
In a separate study from York University in Canada, researchers found that while the people who spend the most time on Facebook have narcissistic tendencies, they also suffer from low self-esteem.
“I believe the next question to be answered is whether or not the use of such websites could be used to improve one’s self-esteem and overall sense of well-being,” lead researcher Soraya Mehdizadeh wrote in a press release. “This sort of finding may have great implications in the lives of the socially anxious or depressed.”
Bishop Amat senior Gabriel Prieto would agree with the York study’s findings.
“People who post constantly do it to get attention,” he said. “And people can exaggerate their statuses.”
However, Ponce said that Facebook gives friends a chance to bond.
“I feel accepted, and I need to feel it because that’s what everyone wants,” she said. “No one wants to be an outsider.”
[Editor’s note: Adriana Ponce is a member of The Lance staff, but wasn’t at the time of this writing.]