Social Media and Self Esteem

1. The veil that of social media offers in terms of anonymity allows one to communicate freely and engage in any topic hence increased self-esteem.
2. A great personality means that some people can cope with negative sentiments on social media, as well as unaffected by the fabulous accomplishments of follows on social media.
3. People who spend less time on social media, briefly interacting with friends, are less likely to be negatively affected by social media. 

Hypothesis: The ability of a social media user to post and interact anonymously on social media, means that their self-esteem increases. 

Independent variable: The independent variable in the study is the anonymity of the user. The independent variable will be manipulated by allowing the user to switch between anonymous accounts and public accounts. The public accounts will be involve known profiles of participants. The study will adopt sensitive topics throughout the study. 

Dependent variable: The dependent variable in the study is the self-esteem of the participants. The study will use the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to measure the self-esteem of participants.

Response to Tiffany Show

I agree with you that past experiences of trauma are likely to make people use social media more. The shame and guilt that accompany most of the traumatized people mean that engaging in face to face interaction may be difficult. However, social media offers some level of anonymity that allows these people to interact freely and engage in the topic they feel concerned about such as rape, bullying, and discrimination among others.

The experiment does not link the woman yelling to social media usage. You could link the two by letting participants have a conversation publicly/face to face about the behavior of the woman as well as a separate experiment where they have a similar conversation on social media anonymously. You can then measure their self-esteem in these two separate incidents and draw up your conclusion.