THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS ASSOCIATED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA USE PERCEPTION AND FAKE PERCEIVED ONLINE PERSONA AWARENESS

<doi>10.24250/JPE/2/2020/DR/ED/SI/GR/AR

Abstract

The digital identity, online identity or internet persona, is defined as a social identity, an actively constructed presentation of oneself that an individual creates in online communities and digital environments. Considering social identity theory as an explanatory framework, this paper brings evidence on the dynamic relationship between psychological disorders associated with social media use perception and fake perceived online persona awareness in cyberbullying. The concept of digital wellbeing refers to the overall wellbeing index generated by the interaction between humans with social digital environments, like social media platforms. Rethinking mental illness in the light of digital footprints and traces people leave on social media platforms, encompasses the possibility that an event to become toxic and pathologic is exponentially higher in the digital realm that in the real life, as such developing a pathology associated with the usage of digital environment becomes exponentially higher. The question becomes is this new emerging digital pathology really a psychological pathology or just a response to a digital adversity situation/environment/person? Our research team has developed the projects Keeping youth safe from Cyberbullying and Hate’s Journey, aiming to deeper understand the dynamics of different digital aggression aspects in online environments among youth, by creating an online questionnaire composed by single item research questions related to core concepts and perceptions about digital aggression motives and effects. The paper’s focus is on analyzing the psychological disorders associated with social media use perception impact on fake perceived online persona awareness in cyberbullying and digital hate speech incidents, in 206 participants residents of Latvia in 24.8%, Romania 24.8%, Spain 24.8%, and Turkey 25.7%, with an age mean of m=30 years, 39.8% males and 60.2% females. Data analysis results depict that when modelling the effect of psychological disorders associated with social media use perception on fake perceived online persona awareness in cyberbullying, the curvilinear model (19%) is more consistent that the linear model (15%), with both models showing statistical significance. Psychological conclusions and implications in regards to digital wellbeing perspective are discussed.