If you post something and a bunch of people like it or comment positively on it, of course that's going to boost your self-esteem. It makes you feel popular. I imagine the opposite to be true, too. If your posts are frequently ignored, that would probably tend to diminish your self-esteem. Facebook is just a different interface for basic human interactions, so I doubt this would really surprise any sociologists.

I am not making this up -- I found out today that my new Kenmore washer & dryer have Kenmore Connect, which lets you call tech support on your cell phone, then hold the phone up to the appliance so that it can be talked to directly. Supposedly, the majority of service calls are not hardware related, so this lets Sears see what's wrong with your machine and potentially fix it without having to send someone out. I'm guessing appliances connecting to service sites with wi-fi would be next.

That's called Instant Netflix.