Analyzing the Technological Influence on Self-esteem: A Systematic Literature Review under the Socially-Aware Design Perspective

Self-esteem is a concept developed from the personal experiences of a person in society, relative to his/her own assessment. It expresses an attitude of approval, or disapproval, and indicates to what extent the person believes to be capable, meaningful, dignified, and successful in relation to his/her abilities, skills, social relationships and physical appearance, for example. Some studies indicate technology has the potential to provide experiences that can affect the users’ psychological states, including their self-esteem. This work contributes with a systematic literature review, aiming at investigating technological applications designed to influence self-esteem. Through automatic and manual search, we identified 3,668 papers potentially addressing the subject, and 7 of them were selected for a thorough analysis based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. In this paper we organized and detailed the results we raised through the Semiotic Framework (Semiotic Ladder) perspective. The results highlight what types of systems are used to affect/impact self-esteem, how technology has been used, the strategies for supporting this purpose, and the aspects of self-esteem addressed. Yet, we analyzed what values (personal, social, and technical) these applications considered. This work relates self-esteem, values, technological issues, and strategies to influence self-esteem, and points out limitations and open challenges to further explore.