A Study on Social Media Content Exposure, Self-Perception, and Motivation among Students

Existing literature on social media and students tends to conceptualize the effect of social media on students as either demotivating/motivating or negative/positive. These dualistic methods fail to capture the intricate emotional experiences of students while using social media on a day-to-day basis. This paper investigates the effect of achievement-oriented social media content on students’ self-perception and motivation. Through survey research among undergraduate students, this paper reveals an interesting and yet unexplored phenomenon: students who feel a greater sense of inadequacy while watching others’ achievements tend to feel a greater sense of inspiration and motivation to better themselves. Instead of discouraging students, discomforting emotions seem to coexist with and even complement achievement-oriented motivation. This paradoxical effect of social media on students has been labeled as the Inadequacy-Inspiration Paradox and indicates that social media creates a type of motivation that is psychologically engaging but emotionally taxing