AI-Mediated Self: Social Comparison, Self-Disclosure, and Algorithmic Validation in Digital Communication

This article examines how social networking sites (SNS) shape self-esteem, self-evaluation, self-disclosure, and social comparison, while extending the analysis to artificial-intelligence (AI)-mediated communication. As an integrative conceptual review, it draws on research in computer-mediated communication, social comparison, self-presentation, and emerging research on AI-mediated communication. The article proposes the AI-mediated self as a working conceptual lens for examining how intelligent systems increasingly participate in self-presentation, comparison, disclosure, and social validation. The argument is not that AI necessarily reduces well-being. Rather, risks may emerge when technological mediation changes the conditions under which individuals evaluate themselves, interpret feedback, experience authorship, or depend on algorithmically structured recognition. A recursive framework links selective self-presentation, social comparison, self-evaluation, disclosure, and validation, while distinguishing forms of augmentation that support human agency from forms of substitution that may weaken it. Future research directions are proposed for psychological resilience, platform design, digital literacy, and human-centered AI governance.