Abstract
Social networking sites enable a form of strategic self-presentation that is rooted in an ethos of self-promotion. The purpose of the present study was to investigate if viewing one’s own Facebook profile reduces discrepancy between real and ideal self-concept, and if viewing the Facebook profile of others increases this discrepancy. A secondary aim of this study was to investigate the type of social comparison that takes place on Facebook. In the current study 59 participants joined an online experiment in order to investigate the above. The results show that viewing one’s own profile does not significantly affect real/ideal self-discrepancy. Viewing the profile of others does not result in increased unfavourable social comparison. Implications and potential future directions for research are discussed. Author keywords: Facebook self-discrepancy, social comparison
