Abstract

Social media has become an important environment in which adolescents communicate, seek feedback, and evaluate themselves in relation to others. This literature review examines how social comparison on social media influences adolescent self-evaluation, specifically through adolescent brain development and features of social media platforms. The first theme focuses on the uneven development of brain regions responsible for social and reward processing compared with regions responsible for self-control. This developmental pattern may increase adolescents’ sensitivity to social feedback. The second theme examines how features such as likes and comments make peer evaluation highly visible and intensify comparison. Across multiple studies, adolescents show lower self-esteem, greater negative affect, and stronger reliance on external validation following negative social comparison. However, the studies reviewed are limited by self-reports, correlational methods, laboratory settings, and limited examination of sex differences. Overall, the evidence suggests that adolescence is a particularly sensitive

developmental stage for social comparison through social media.

Keywords: adolescence, social media, social comparison, self-evaluation, self-esteem, social feedback, brain development

Introduction

Social media is becoming an important part of adolescents’ daily lives, influencing how they communicate, interact, and understand themselves. According to the Pew Research Center (2024), 46 percent of U.S. teenagers are online nearly constantly, up from 24 percent 10 years ago. Almost all adolescents, 96 percent, use the internet daily, including major platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. These data show how frequently social media is integrated into adolescents’ daily lives, making this age group important for examining its psychological impact (Faverio & Sidoti, 2024). While social media use is also common among young adults, adolescents encounter these platforms during a period when identity and self-esteem are still developing, making the psychological meaning of online feedback especially important. On these platforms, teens often share photos, achievements, and daily moments that present idealized versions of their lives. As a result, social media provides frequent opportunities for adolescents to compare themselves with others.

Adolescence is a period of major brain growth and reorganization. During this stage, the brain shows high levels of neuroplasticity, meaning that development is strongly shaped by experience (Konrad et al., 2013; Crone & Konijn, 2018). Brain maturation is uneven, with reward-related systems developing earlier than cognitive control and emotion-regulation systems (Konrad et al., 2013; Crone & Konijn, 2018). This developmental imbalance increases adolescents’ sensitivity to emotional and social influences. Because adolescents are still developing a stable sense of self, the way they judge themselves in relation to others may be especially responsive to social experiences.

One major psychological process in social media environments is social comparison, which involves evaluating one’s abilities, skills, and outcomes in relation to others (Weiten, 2017). Social comparison is especially important during adolescence, when identity development and self-esteem are strongly affected by social experiences. On social media, frequent exposure to others’ “high-lights” and visible signs of popularity, such as likes, shares, and comments, can increase upward social comparison. Research links upward comparison with decreased mood, reduced self-esteem, and more negative self-evaluation (McComb et al., 2023). Exposure to idealized content can also create unrealistic standards that increase self-doubt. However, social media does not affect all adolescents negatively; when used intentionally, it can provide inspiration, social connection, and motivation.

The rise in adolescent social media use has also occurred alongside concerns about teen mental health. Among U.S. adolescents aged 12–17, diagnosed major depressive disorder increased from 5.8 percent in 2016 to 8.4 percent in 2023, while diagnosed generalised anxiety disorder rose from 10.0 percent to 16.1 percent (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2024). Many psychiatric conditions, including anxiety and mood disorders, first emerge during adolescence (Solmi et al., 2022). Social media is only one of several possible influences, alongside academic pressure, sleep disruption, and broader social stressors. Still, frequent comparison and visible feedback may reinforce negative self-judgments for some adolescents.

Despite growing research on the psychological effects of social media, important gaps remain. Many studies focus on adults or college-aged participants, leaving adolescents underrepresented during a period of heightened neurodevelopmental plasticity (Pfeifer & Berkman, 2018). Research also often emphasizes passive use, such as scrolling, while giving less attention to active features like likes, comments, and follower counts. These active features make social approval visible and comparable and may therefore intensify self-evaluation. This review focuses on two themes: how adolescent brain development increases sensitivity to social evaluation and how active social media features amplify social comparison and self-judgment.

Theme A: Adolescent Brain Development and Sensitivity to Social Evaluation

Brain imaging studies show that different parts of the brain mature at different rates during adolescence. Reward structures such as the nucleus accumbens, which is associated with motivation and reward, mature faster than regions involved in self-regulation and control. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), continues developing into early adulthood (Steinberg, 2008). This developmental difference can make adolescents highly responsive to social approval, status, and acceptance while their ability to regulate emotional reactions and consider long-term consequences is still developing.

Adolescence is also marked by significant neural reorganization. Crone and Konijn (2018) describe processes such as synaptic pruning and the strengthening of white-matter pathways. Important changes occur in regions related to social processing and evaluation, including the mPFC, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula, and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). These regions are involved in processing social feedback, self-perception, and the views of others. The ACC and insula are especially connected with emotional responses to rejection, while the mPFC and TPJ support self-processing and perspective taking. Pfeifer and Berkman (2018) show that identity and judgments about the self influence adolescent decision-making, helping explain why social evaluation becomes especially important during this stage. As adolescents form a clearer sense of identity and social status, peer evaluation can influence both motivation and behavior.

The ACC and insula are particularly involved in processing distress from social exclusion and negative feedback. After social exclusion, Masten et al. (2013) observed stronger ACC and insula activity in adolescents who witnessed the inclusion of a peer, suggesting increased emotional pain and social comparison. Crone and Konijn (2018) similarly describe activation of these regions during social exclusion. These findings provide a possible neural explanation for why negative peer feedback can feel especially intense during adolescence. In social media settings, where evaluation can occur repeatedly and publicly, this sensitivity may connect negative feedback with declines in mood or self-esteem.

In contrast, the ventral striatum is strongly involved in responses to social inclusion and reward. Crone and Konijn (2018) observed ventral striatum activation when adolescents received positive evaluation through likes on social media. Because reward systems are already highly responsive during early adolescence, social approval can become a powerful motivator, encouraging adolescents to pay close attention to feedback and seek validation online. This creates a contrast between strong responses to immediate social rewards and still-developing systems that regulate emotion and behavior.

Self-processing and perspective taking also depend on regions such as the mPFC and TPJ. Pfeifer and Berkman (2018) explain that these processes are still developing during adolescence, making peer perceptions particularly influential in identity formation. van der Cruijsen et al. (2023) found increasing alignment between adolescents’ views of themselves and their beliefs about how peers viewed them, along with mPFC and TPJ involvement. However, sensitivity to social evaluation is not fixed. Older adolescents can show reduced neural responses to social exclusion when feedback is not connected to personally meaningful goals (McCormick et al., 2018), suggesting that increasing brain maturation may strengthen regulatory control.

Longitudinal research also connects social experiences with brain development. Achterberg et al. (2022) found associations between brain structure and adolescent social mental health, suggesting that repeated social experiences may shape how neural systems adapt. Given the high plasticity of the adolescent brain, repeated patterns of evaluation may influence how adolescents process future feedback. This does not mean that social media permanently determines brain development, but it suggests that repeated social experiences may become part of the environment shaping developing neural systems. Together, these findings show that adolescent brain development creates strong sensitivity to social evaluation: reward systems respond strongly to approval while regulation systems are still maturing. As a result, social comparison may have a particularly strong influence on adolescents’ developing self-concept.

Theme B: Active Social Media Features and Social Comparison

Active social media features, including likes, comments, and visible reaction numbers, turn social approval into measurable signals. This makes it easy for adolescents to judge how popular a post is and compare their own engagement with others. Social media therefore does not only expose adolescents to content; it also creates repeated opportunities for social comparison and self-evaluation.

Neuroscience research supports the idea that adolescents are especially sensitive to these features. Sherman et al. (2016) found that adolescents were more likely to like photos that already had many likes, showing that they paid attention to popularity. Popular photos were also associated with greater activity in reward-related brain areas, especially the nucleus accumbens (Sherman et al., 2016). This suggests that likes can function as rewards that influence behavior rather than simply providing neutral information. Similarly, da Silva Pinho et al. (2024) found that adolescents showed stronger emotional reactions to gains and losses in social media feedback than adults.

Social comparison theory helps explain why these signals may affect mental health. Nesi and Prinstein (2015) found that adolescents who used social media for social comparison or feedback-seeking were more likely to report depressive symptoms. These effects were stronger for girls and adolescents with lower peer popularity, suggesting that people who depend more heavily on social approval may be especially vulnerable. Importantly, these outcomes were related more to comparison and validation-seeking than to the amount of time spent on social media. Jónsdóttir (2021) similarly found that social comparison mediated relationships between social media use, lower self-esteem, and loneliness. This suggests that the way adolescents use social media may matter more than screen time alone.

Experimental evidence also shows why low social approval can be harmful. Lee et al. (2020) found that adolescents who received fewer likes than others experienced more negative emotions, more negative thoughts about themselves, and greater feelings of rejection. The effect was especially strong for adolescents who had been bullied. Sánchez-Hernández et al. (2022) found that likes affected adolescents differently depending on how much they compared themselves with others and sought feedback. Adolescents high in comparison and feedback-seeking reacted more strongly to both low and high numbers of likes, while those lower in these behaviors showed weaker emotional reactions. This suggests that likes have the greatest effect when adolescents use them to judge their social value and self-worth.

Qualitative evidence shows that adolescents also interpret likes as important social information. Rides et al. (2025) found that adolescents used likes to judge popularity, success, and self-worth. Some felt disappointed, jealous, embarrassed, or inferior when receiving fewer likes than peers, and some deleted posts with low engagement. Adolescents were also careful with likes and comments because online reactions could be interpreted as signals of friendship, romantic interest, or support. Many reported liking friends’ posts simply to show support even when they did not enjoy the content (Rides et al., 2025). This shows that likes can function as tools for maintaining relationships as well as indicators of popularity.

At the same time, social feedback can create pressure. Adolescents may feel expected to react to friends’ posts to avoid appearing unsupportive, while negative comments or intentionally withholding reactions may be used to embarrass or exclude others (Rides et al., 2025). These behaviors show that active social media features are connected not only to personal self-esteem but also to peer relationships and social belonging.

Developmental evidence further shows that social media feedback is experienced as an emotional cue rather than neutral information. da Silva Pinho et al. (2024) found that the number of likes had a stronger influence on adolescents than adults, with adolescents showing stronger reactions to gains and losses. This is consistent with the developmental imbalance between highly responsive reward systems and still-maturing control systems described in Theme A.

Overall, active social media features make comparison easier by turning approval into visible and comparable numbers. Active use includes behaviors such as posting, monitoring likes, seeking feedback, and comparing engagement with peers, while passive use mainly involves viewing content without interaction (Nesi & Prinstein, 2015; Jónsdóttir, 2021). Across the literature, these engagement patterns appear more strongly connected to emotional and self-esteem outcomes than screen time alone. Because adolescents are still developing identity and self-esteem, active social media use can strongly influence how they evaluate popularity, belonging, and self-worth.

Discussion and Limitations

The literature reviewed suggests that adolescent brain development and active social media features work together to make social comparison especially influential during adolescence. Neurodevelopmental research explains why adolescents are sensitive to peer feedback, while social media research shows how visible indicators of approval increase opportunities for comparison. Evidence from neuroimaging, experiments, surveys, and interviews generally converges on this pattern. However, each method has limitations that affect how strongly the findings can be interpreted.

Theme A relies heavily on neuroimaging and controlled experimental paradigms. These methods provide strong control but may lack external validity because real social media interactions are more complex and are tied to friendships, reputation, and social status. Many studies also do not directly test specific social media platforms or features, so connections between observed neural responses and online social comparison remain partly indirect. In addition, although longitudinal designs are useful, many studies are still correlational and cannot determine whether social experiences change brain development or whether brain maturation changes sensitivity to social evaluation.

Theme B also has important limitations. Much of the research relies on self-reported social media use, which can be affected by reporting bias, inaccurate memory, and expectancy effects. Correlational and cross-sectional studies can identify relationships between comparison and self-esteem but cannot establish causation. Experimental studies may provide stronger control, but they often capture only short-term emotional responses and may not reflect the meaning of likes and comments within real peer relationships. A simulated low-like condition in a laboratory, for example, may not have the same meaning as receiving little engagement from close friends on a real account.

Several limitations apply across both themes. Many studies do not consistently examine sex and gender differences or adolescents’ existing mental health status. Although some research suggests that girls may be more vulnerable to negative outcomes, many studies do not directly test whether neural or emotional responses differ by sex or gender, and many rely on binary gender categories. Pre-existing depression or anxiety may also influence how strongly an adolescent reacts to comparison, but this is not always considered. Research rarely examines viral trends, which may increase conformity and comparison by exposing many adolescents to the same ideals or behaviors.

Current research also tends to emphasize negative outcomes, even though social media can provide social connection, peer support, and community-building, especially for adolescents who feel isolated offline. Finally, few studies combine real-world social media behavior with biological measures. Brain imaging and stress measures such as cortisol or heart rate are difficult and expensive to collect outside controlled settings, leading many studies to rely on self-report. Future research would be stronger if it combined biological measures with accurate, long-term tracking of adolescents’ actual social media behavior. This would help researchers connect what adolescents report feeling with objective patterns of behavior and physiological or neural responses. These limitations mean that current findings are meaningful but should be interpreted carefully.

Conclusion

Overall, social comparison on social media can shape adolescent self-evaluation because adolescence is a period of ongoing brain development and identity formation. Reward-related brain regions respond strongly to social approval, while systems involved in emotional regulation and self-control are still maturing. At the same time, social media makes peer feedback highly visible through likes, comments, and follower counts, creating repeated opportunities for comparison.

Research shows that adolescents who monitor likes, compare themselves with peers, or seek validation are more likely to report negative emotions, lower self-esteem, and greater dependence on external approval. Positive feedback may temporarily increase self-worth, while low engagement or negative feedback can produce distress. Brain regions involved in self-processing and perspective taking may also make peer opinions especially important during identity development. Because this process occurs while adolescents are forming a more stable self-concept, repeated comparison may influence not only temporary mood but also how they come to judge themselves over time. Together, these findings suggest that social comparison changes adolescent self-evaluation by making self-worth more dependent on peer feedback during a sensitive developmental stage.

References

Achterberg, M., Becht, A., van der Cruijsen, R., van de Groep, I. H., Spaans, J. P., Klapwijk, E., & Crone, E. A. (2022). Longitudinal associations between social media use, mental well-being and structural brain development across adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 54, Article 101088. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101088

Crone, E. A., & Konijn, E. A. (2018). Media use and brain development during adolescence. Nature Communications, 9(1), Article 588. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03126-x

van der Cruijsen, R., Blankenstein, N. E., Spaans, J. P., Peters, S., & Crone, E. A. (2023). Longitudinal self-concept development in adolescence. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 18(1), Article nsac062. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsac062

Faverio, M., & Sidoti, O. (2024, December 12). Teens, social media and technology 2024. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/12/12/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024 /

Gottfried, J., & Park, E. (2025, November 20). Americans’ social media use 2025. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/

Jónsdóttir, L. (2021). The mediating role of social comparison in passive and active social media use and the relationship with self-esteem and loneliness in girls and boys [Bachelor’s thesis, University of Iceland]. Skemman. https://skemman.is/handle/1946/39235

Konrad, K., Firk, C., & Uhlhaas, P. J. (2013). Brain development during adolescence: Neuroscientific insights into this developmental period. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, 110(25), 425–431. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2013.0425

Lee, H. Y., Jamieson, J. P., Reis, H. T., Beevers, C. G., Josephs, R. A., Mullarkey, M. C., O’Brien, J. M., & Yeager, D. S. (2020). Getting fewer “likes” than others on social media elicits emotional distress among victimized adolescents. Child Development, 91(6), 2141–2159. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13422

Masten, C. L., Eisenberger, N. I., Pfeifer, J. H., & Dapretto, M. (2013). Neural responses to witnessing peer rejection after being socially excluded: fMRI as a window into adolescents’ emotional processing. Developmental Science, 16(5), 743–759. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12056

McComb, C. A., Vanman, E. J., & Tobin, S. J. (2023). A meta-analysis of the effects of social media exposure to upward comparison targets on self-evaluations and emotions. Media Psychology, 26(5), 612–635. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2023.2180647

McCormick, E. M., Perino, M. T., & Telzer, E. H. (2018). Not just social sensitivity: Adolescent neural suppression of social feedback during risk taking. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 30, 134–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2018.01.012

Nesi, J., & Prinstein, M. J. (2015). Using social media for social comparison and feedback-seeking: Gender and popularity moderate associations with depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43(8), 1427–1438. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0020-0

Pfeifer, J. H., & Berkman, E. T. (2018). The development of self and identity in adolescence: Neural evidence and implications for a value-based choice perspective on motivated behavior. Child Development Perspectives, 12(3), 158–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12279

da Silva Pinho, A., Céspedes Izquierdo, V., Lindström, B., & van den Bos, W. (2024). Youths’ sensitivity to social media feedback: A computational account. Science Advances, 10(43), Article eadp8775. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp8775

Rides, G., Pote, H., & Watling, D. (2025). Adolescents’ perceptions of using likes, comments, and other reactions—A qualitative investigation. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 43(3), 595–610. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12537

Sánchez-Hernández, M. D., Herrera, M. C., & Expósito, F. (2022). Does the number of likes affect adolescents’ emotions? The moderating role of social comparison and feedback-seeking on Instagram. The Journal of Psychology, 156(3), 200–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2021.2024120

Sappenfield, O., Alberto, C., Minnaert, J., Donney, J., Lebrun-Harris, L., & Ghandour, R. (2024). Adolescent mental and behavioral health, 2023. Health Resources and Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK608531/

Sherman, L. E., Greenfield, P. M., Hernandez, L. M., & Dapretto, M. (2018). Peer influence via Instagram: Effects on brain and behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. Child Development, 89(1), 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12838

Sherman, L. E., Payton, A. A., Hernandez, L. M., Greenfield, P. M., & Dapretto, M. (2016). The power of the like in adolescence: Effects of peer influence on neural and behavioral responses to social media. Psychological Science, 27(7), 1027–1035. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616645673

Solmi, M., Radua, J., Olivola, M., Croce, E., Soardo, L., Salazar de Pablo, G., Shin, J. I., Kirkbride, J. B., Jones, P., Kim, J. H., Kim, J. Y., Carvalho, A. F., Seeman, M. V., Correll, C. U., & Fusar-Poli, P. (2022). Age at onset of mental disorders worldwide: Large-scale meta-analysis of 192 epidemiological studies. Molecular Psychiatry, 27(1), 281–295. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01161-7

Steinberg, L. (2008). A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking. Developmental Review, 28(1), 78–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002