How do people's comments have an affect on others' behavior?

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The economic principle  I'm exploring is "Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices." 

My research question to help me study this economic principle is 

How do people's comments (in-person & on social media) have an affect on people's behavior? 

This article published by MUD , titled, "7 Affects of Social Media on People and Users", demostrated my ecomonic principle by showing ways of how technology is feeding your depression. 

Firsly, Anta Zhukova, the author of this article, talked about how social media can feed your anxiety as well as your depression. As many of us this day and age spend at least 2 hours on social media everyday, she states that "Spending too long on social networking sites could be adversely affecting your mood. In fact, you’re more likely to report poor mental health, including symptoms of anxiety and depression." This shows that to an extent, social media makes you an unhappy person. 

Another topic she covers is Cyberbullying. Before social media, bullying was something only done face-to-face. However, now, someone can be bullied online anonymously. "Today everyone knows what cyberbullying is, and most of us have seen what it can do to a person. And since screens hide our faces, you can even be a jerk on sites like Reddit without realizing it. This proves that these online attacks often leave deep mental scars. "It can even drive people to suicide in some cases." she states. People's comments can have a huge effect of others' self esteem. It can make others feel insecure and unwanted, and these are only a few reasons why. 

Secondly,  this article published by Psychreg, titled "The Negative Effects of Social Media on Self-Esteem" demostates my economic principle by showing how social media taps into our insecurities. 

Alyssa mairanz talks about how social media “platforms have created a way to compare yourself to others in a way that we never had before. Most of the time, people are posting pictures and statuses of the fun things they are doing, about their romantic relationships, developments in their careers, etc.” Little things like that can have a huge effect on people’s Self-Esteem. Jealously plays a huge role in self-esteem.

People need to take the time and realize that  “social media is not an accurate picture of someone's life. As a general rule, you can’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside. You never really know what is going on in someone else’s mind.” All the media does is make us feel bad about ourselves and helps us realize what it is were missing not what we actually need to appreciate.

In conclusion, it is clear from only a few gathered sources that, yes, people's comments (in person & on social media) have an affect on people's behavior and social media can cause someone to obtain depression and feel unloved, it's important to note that social media has it's many benefits but also it's disadvantages.

In my next blog post, I will be answering the question, "How have trends changed people"