Looking-glass self
The term looking-glass self was created by American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley in 1902,[1] and introduced into his work Human Nature and the Social Order.
If the individual notices negative reactions, such as a lack of interest, this confidence in self often becomes shaken and reformed in order to better oneself, even if the perceived judgments were not necessarily true.
explains, social media has created a concept named the "cyber self", a version one wishes to portray online and to the public, that is based on the judgements of others.
Users are constantly exposed to criticism and judgement from others, and so the cyber self can be easily changed and perfected to fit the supposed acceptance of others.
Aiken notes that individuals, and particularly teenagers, who are increasingly involved in updating their online personas, risk damaging the development of their real-world self.
[5] She also notes that this effect may be even greater among users who display all different sorts of "cyber selves" among different platforms with different purposes, such as between X (previously Twitter), Instagram, and LinkedIn.
[5] A social media study also uncovered a host of positive effects of the use of social media and in developing oneself, with dozens of creators citing that producing content gave them a sense of self-confidence and self-worth, enhanced their creativity, increased their sense of professionality, and that their platforms offered a positive space to interact with others.
Emojis and memes work as tools that assist in an aspect that online text communications essentially cannot provide: visual expression.
The reinforcement or shift in the looking-glass self is activated when users receive feedback from these attempts to better express their understanding of self through the usage of emojis and memes.
Thus, not only do emojis and memes help to simply express one’s personality and character, it plays a significant role in shifting the looking-glass self and how we perceive ourselves.
It has been argued that the looking glass self conceptualization of the social self is critically incomplete in that it overlooks the divergent roles of ingroups and outgroups in self-definition.
Source:[16] The Sociometer Hypothesis was created by Mark R. Leary, Ellen S. Tambor, Sonja K. Terdal, Deborah L. Downs.
Ultimately, the hypothesis aims to explain self-esteem as a measure of one’s acceptance into society (i.e. their inclusionary status), to indicate whether one is at risk of being socially ostracized.
These values are reflected in how an individual weighs different domains of their self regarding desirability (i.e. traits that are perceived to be more socially sought out for hold greater significance).
Hence why individuals with low esteem are thought to be sensitive to indicators of social acceptance, whereas those with high self-esteem are less susceptible.
Children learn that the symbol of their crying will elicit a response from their caregivers, not only when they are in need of necessities such as food or a diaper change, but also when they are in need of attention.
