Facebook (In)Authenticity Moderates the Relation Between Last Night’s Time on Facebook and Today’s Implicit Self-Esteem

Abstract

Using a daily diary methodology, we explored the relation between self-reported Facebook authenticity, nightly time on Facebook, and daily explicit and implicit self-esteem. Aggregate results (mean across 14-days) revealed that people who reported greater authenticity on their Facebook page spent more time on Facebook and generally felt more accepted. People higher in authenticity also reported higher explicit self-esteem, but lower implicit self-esteem. Within-person analyses at the daily level revealed Facebook authenticity interacted with last night’s time on Facebook to predict today’s implicit self-esteem. For people low in authenticity, spending more time on Facebook the previous night increased daily implicit self-esteem, suggesting people who misrepresent themselves on Facebook experienced a boost in implicit feelings of self-worth after increased time on Facebook.