Abstract
Profiles pictures as online identities represent an extension of the user’s self in the digital world. Changes in self-representation are responsible for reduced well-being in individuals in the offline world. However, whether profile picture selection predicts the well-being of internet users is unknown. To address this question, we tested the relationship between the type of profile picture (e.g., self-photographs or other pictures) used on social media and the life satisfaction of internet users, accounting for gender and personality traits that have been thought to relate to the selection of profile pictures. The results showed that individuals using self-photographs as profiles reported a higher level of life satisfaction compared to individuals using other pictures as profiles. This effect was influenced by gender, openness, and extraversion. Hierarchical regression and moderation analyses revealed that openness and profile type interacted to predict life satisfaction in women, while openness and profile picture independently predicted life satisfaction in men. Furthermore, extraversion directly predicted life satisfaction in both men and women. These results indicate that the consistency between one’s online and offline self-representation may characterize internet users’ well-being, with potential implications for digital wellness.
Highlights
Boundaries between the online and offline worlds are becoming increasingly blurred in today’s world
People that used a self-photograph as a social networking profile picture perceived higher subjective life satisfaction than other picture users
We found there was no significant correlation between profile type and gender, openness, or extraversion
Summary
Boundaries between the online and offline worlds are becoming increasingly blurred in today’s world. Belk (2016) suggested that there was a consistency of identity construction from offline to online interactions [1]. A representative example of online self-image management is the selection of profile picture on social networking sites. A profile picture refers to a specific picture that individuals use in online social networking to represent themselves, which can be any type of picture, and it reflects how individuals view and shape their online self-representation [2]. Changes in self-representation, on the other hand, have been linked to a variety of mental illnesses in the offline world [3,4]. The phototype that individuals choose as profiles to present themselves online (e.g., using self-photographs or other pictures) may relate to mental health such as subjective wellbeing, because this social networking behavior reflects the consistency of online and offline self-representation. The aim of the current study was to examine whether this was the case by focusing on the relationship between the use of online identity and life satisfaction
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