Social Media and Perfectionism
- Jan 26, 2025
- 6 min read
In today's digital age, social media platforms like Instagram have become essential parts of our daily lives. While these platforms offer numerous benefits, they also come with other concerning issues, one of which being the relationship between problematic social media use and perfectionism.
Perfectionism is described as a multidimensional trait that one has excessively high standards of their performance and evaluates oneself critically [1]. It can be functional or dysfunctional, positive or negative, or, self-directed or socially-prescribed [2]. “Digital perfectionism” was a term coined to describe perfectionistic behaviour driven by digital spaces, with ‘mistake uneasiness, disproportionate standards, criticism antipathy and excessive orderliness’ as 4 major components [3].
Social media platforms, particularly Instagram, allow users to showcase the highlights of their lives. The features of modifying and applying filters to improve pictures give rise to risk of confusing reality and self-image, unrealistic expectations and stress to conform to these ideals. Users may measure their own worth against the seemingly perfect lives of others, fueling perfectionistic tendencies [2].
The pursuit of perfectionism on social media can have detrimental effects on our mental health, with increased risk for anxiety being the first one. Studies have shown that individuals who engage in problematic social media use are more likely to experience social anxiety and appearance-related sensitivities [4]. For instance, users may have anxious expectations on number of likes in each post, number of followers, being judged by others and self-presentation on social media.
Being sensitive to appearance feedback and judgement may give rise to negative self-esteem. Upward social comparison is particularly common on social media that users may compare themselves with someone perceived as better or with higher status than oneself [5]. They may feel inferior when they are comparing themselves with celebrities and other users' seemingly perfect lives online [6].
By using social media wisely, we can mitigate or even eliminate the harmful effects mentioned earlier. When we constantly feel overwhelmed by social media, it may be a good opportunity to reconsider the time we spend and the types of content we are consuming on social networking sites. In recent years, social media addiction has also emerged as a novel area of concern for mental health. While it is not a diagnosable condition, social media addiction is generally defined as ‘compulsive social media engagement’ that negatively affects users’ lifestyle domains both online and offline, including interpersonal relationships, academics and wellbeing [7]. Through application of established behavioural addiction components, we may ask ourselves the following questions to assess the negative impacts and addiction prevalences of social media :
Salience: Has social media dominated many of our thoughts and daily activities?
Tolerance: Does it feel like we need to spend increasingly more time on social media to achieve satisfaction?
Mood Modification: Have we used social media to avoid unpleasant or stressful situations in our lives?
Relapse: Have we tried to control our social media use, but to no avail?
Withdrawal: Do we feel frustrated when we cannot access social media?
Conflict: Has social media affected our studies in any way?
If many of these scenarios seem highly relatable, it might be time to consider whether social media has played an overwhelmingly negative influence in our lives. Understandably, it can be quite intimidating to label our actions as an "addiction." Yet, despite the strong terminology, it is actually a common struggle among our generation. One study has suggested that among Asian college students (including those from Hong Kong), nearly a third (33.1%) collectively suffer from social media addiction, surpassing rates for internet and online gaming addictions [8]. Globally, this issue affects approximately one-fifth of university students in various regions as well, indicating that this is quite a common problem [9]. Perhaps we may find comfort in the fact that a lot of us are going through the same struggles, and that we are all on a meaningful journey to better ourselves.
While there are many ways to improve our mental wellbeing, social media detox has been suggested as a specific method to combat social media addiction. A ‘digital detox’ generally refers to a ‘time-out’ or ‘abstinence’ period against device usages, or more specifically social networking platforms under this context [10]. Resources for digital detox are growing, and there have been multiple approaches available with variations on character (gradual or immediate), duration, intensity, and more. While still in its infancy, social media-specific detoxes have generally shown promising results in improving both physical and mental facets of wellbeing, including addiction intervention, life satisfaction, perceived wellness, sleep quality, and many more [11]. Regardless of how distressing social media might be for us, it would certainly be constructive to do some research and identify digital detox regimens that we don’t feel too intimidated by, and employ measures when we feel the need to take a break.
Personally, abruptly limiting social media use feels like an insurmountable challenge. (小編自問唔係一個好有自律嘅人) However, while researching this topic, we discovered a 7-day social media detox challenge proposed by the Media & Information Literacy Resources Hub of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (香港青年協會). We’ve included their recommended regimen in our graphic, along with a link in our references for those who find it helpful [12]! Ultimately, we should seek approaches that best suit our individual needs, and we look forward to supporting you on your unique digital detox journeys!
Sometimes, it can feel daunting to confront concepts of addiction and detoxification, as this vocabulary may seem strong and critical. Do remember to empower yourself while using social media!! Even with complex algorithms and fierce online competition, 🌟we can be the ones in control of our account and content. 🌟From all of us at WRB, we have faith that our dear readers can maintain positive experiences on social media, and understand that it is in no way demeaning to make better changes for ourselves.
References
[1] Frost, R. O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. (2019, March 5). The dimensions of perfectionism - cognitive therapy and research. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01172967
[2] Harren, N., Walburg, V., & Chabrol, H. (2021). Studying social media burnout and problematic social media use: The implication of perfectionism and Metacognitions. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 4, 100117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100117
[3] Sedera, D., & Lokuge, S. (2020). Flaws in flawlessness: Perfectionism as a new technology driven mental disorder. arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.12032.
[4] Hawes, T., Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., & Campbell, S. M. (2020). Unique associations of social media use and online appearance preoccupation with depression, anxiety, and appearance rejection sensitivity. Body image, 33, 66-76.
[5] Danielsen, H. E., Finserås, T. R., Andersen, A. I. O., Hjetland, G. J., Woodfin, V., & Skogen, J. C. (2024). Mirror, mirror on my screen: Focus on self-presentation on social media is associated with perfectionism and disordered eating among adolescents. Results from the “LifeOnSoMe”-study. BMC Public Health, 24(1), 2466.
[6] Jan, M., Soomro, S., & Ahmad, N. (2017). Impact of social media on self-esteem. European Scientific Journal, 13(23), 329-341.
[7] Cheng, C., Ebrahimi, O. V., & Luk, J. W. (2022, January 10). Heterogeneity of prevalence of social media addiction across multiple classification schemes: Latent profile analysis. Journal of medical Internet research.
[8] Griffiths, M. D., Ding, Y. J., Chou, W.-P., Turel, O., Zhang, M. W., Shensa, A., Rose, C. A., Wu, X. S., Tran, B. X., Lin, M.-P., Awan, M. A., Tateno, M., Chi, X., Younes, F., Chen, S.-H., Apa, Organization, W. H., Mak, K.-K., Li, H., … Tang, C. M.-C. (2018, October 19). Relative risks of internet-related addictions and mood disturbances among college students: A 7-country/region comparison. Public Health.
[9] Salari, N., Zarei, H., Hosseinian-Far, A., Rasoulpoor, S., Shohaimi, S., & Mohammadi, M. (2023, July 22). The global prevalence of social media addiction among University Students: A systematic review and meta-analysis - Journal of Public Health. SpringerLink.
[10] Radtke, T., Apel, T., Schenkel, K., Keller, J., & von Lindern, E. (2021, July 15). Digital detox: An effective solution in the smartphone era? A systematic literature review. SageJournals Volume 10 Issue 2, May 2022.
[11] Coyne, P., & Woodruff, S. J. (2023, December 8). Taking a break: The effects of partaking in a two-week social media digital detox on problematic smartphone and social media use, and other health-related outcomes among young adults. Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland).
[12] 香港青年協會, FiNet 世代計劃, 優質教育基金. (2024, July 2). 數碼排毒7日挑戰 重建自主生活. 香港青年協會 媒體素養教育網. https://medialiteracy.hk/%e6%95%b8%e7%a2%bc%e6%8e%92%e6%af%927%ef%b8%8f%e2%83%a3-%e6%97%a5%e6%8c%91%e6%88%b0-%e9%87%8d%e5%bb%ba%e8%87%aa%e4%b8%bb%e7%94%9f%e6%b4%bb/
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