Sharing Articles on Social Media Creates 'Rise' in Confidence, Study Says

Joseph Henry, Tech Times 05 September 2022, 03:09 am

In social media, posting different content online is limitless. You can upload your favorite clips or share your unique experience with your friends in school or at work.

Recently, a group of researchers from the University of Texas said that sharing articles on your social media platforms can bring a new perspective to other people.

The study says that people can perceive you as an expert in your shared content even if they have not yet read the news or an article.

Sharing Articles Breeds Overconfidence Online

Sharing Articles on Social Media Creates 'Rise' in Confidence, Study Says

(Photo : Austin Distel from Unsplash)
According to the study, people think that those who share articles on social media are experts even without reading the content.

As you scroll down to see the updates from your friends and other people on your list, you will notice that some of them are regularly sharing articles from various publications. This is a part of daily social media activities that you can only observe online.

According to a recent report by Fox News, people will perceive you as knowledgeable in your shared post even though they only saw the headline. They will also think the same thing even without reading the article.

The study says that sharing online content across the social media space can tell more about overconfidence. Just by reposting a story or an article, viewers will think that you're an expert on the information.

"Doing so shapes their sense of self, helping them to feel just as knowledgeable as their post makes them seem," the researchers said.

Based on the research, 51% of social media users are reading the whole content of a news article. 26% are reportedly reading a portion of the story while only 22% just practiced looking at the headline and some paragraphs.

Per Susan M. Broniarczyk, a marketing professor, there's no need to get through the whole article since some people think that they already know what it's all about.

According to Broniarczyk, it's difficult to connect the "miscalibrated sense of knowledge" among social media consumers.

Truly, it's interesting to know how a mere instance of sharing an article can tell a lot about a person's perception.

The data used in the research came from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

To view the full study of Broniarczyk and Adrian Ward, click here.

Social Media is For Establishing Relationships

Facebook addiction is really a hot topic these days especially since people spend absurdly long hours in front of their computers and smartphones.

Some people are reportedly spending over five hours on social media just by endlessly scrolling over their feeds.

While social media apps are built for social consumption, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks beyond that. According to the businessman, social media is created to build relationships with other people, per CNBC.

Zuckerberg says that consuming stuff online is not "necessarily bad," but you are not maximizing the positive benefits that you can reap when using Facebook.

While some studies say that people become happier when using social media platforms, another study from Meta revealed that online users become lonelier in cyberspace.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry