Social comparison behaviour on social network sites: The comparison between Twitter and Instagram

Social network sites (SNS) have become the extent of everyday life, considering the habits of use of them today. It seems self-presentations are prominent on SNS gathering millions of people, which makes social comparison behavior on SNS unavoidable. The purpose of this study is to investigate individuals' social comparison behavior on SNS. Therefore, the study aims at examining whether social comparison level, direction of comparisons, domains of comparisons, emotional outcomes of comparisons and the relationship between social comparison orientation, frequency of SNS use and social comparison level on SNS vary according to the contents of SNS (image/text based) or not. The study consists of contents and users of Instagram and Twitter. Findings indicate that individuals make social comparison in physical environments more than on SNS. Users' social comparison level on Instagram is higher than on Twitter. Findings concerning direction of comparisons show that upward comparisons occur more than downward comparisons on both Instagram and Twitter. Age and income level influence upward comparison level on Instagram. Findings about domains of comparisons indicate that users compare themselves with others about richness most on Instagram while they make comparison about success on Twitter. Inspiration is the most commonly experienced emotion by individuals towards upward comparisons, whereas sympathy is an emotion experienced most by individuals towards downward comparisons on both of Instagram and Twitter. Furthermore, social comparison orientation and social comparison level on SNS are positively related, nevertheless there is no relation between habits of use of SNS and social comparison level on SNS. Keywords: Social Network Sites, Image/Text Based Social Network Sites, Instagram, Twitter, Social Comparison