Sometimes in looking through Facebook, it can seem that everyone's life is perfect, full of smiling children, exciting parties, exotic vacations, and clever status updates that inspire responses from many. It's a way to link to new and interesting things you might find surfing the web, play a variety of electronic games, a way to promote new businesses, and it's even becoming a medium for true social change.
It's also a way to realize that some of the people you know are really really irritating. But are they irritating only online, or does this illustrate a more general truth about who they are?
People have commonly assumed that people put forth their best public face on social networking sites, and that they present not a real version of themselves, but an idealized one. A recent study conducted by Sam Gosling of the University of Texas at Austin, however, suggests that Facebook profiles result in fairly accurate representations of our personalities. Researchers asked participants to fill out questionnaires on the Big 5 personality measures of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, listing both what they perceived themselves to be (their real self) and what they wished to be (their ideal self). It turns out that when observers then rated their perceptions of the participants' profiles, the ratings matched pretty closely. In other words, people's profiles were a good representation of their personality.
"I was surprised by the findings because the widely held assumption is that people are using their profiles to promote an enhanced impression of themselves," says Gosling of the more than 700 million people worldwide who have online profiles. "In fact, our findings suggest that online social networking profiles convey rather accurate images of the profile owners, either because people aren't trying to look good or because they are trying and failing to pull it off."
Gosling argues that this "honesty" thus makes Facebook (and potentially other social networking sites) more like genuine social interaction, and that it fulfills many of the same functions. He likens Facebook to using a telephone - allowing us to keep in contact with people with whom we might not keep in contact with otherwise. He makes the argument that his research shows that we really can trust the online personas people present to the world.
While I agree with these statements generally, I would also point out that online, particularly when posts can be made anonymous, many people are prone towards making statements that they would not make in real life. The online framework provides a sense of anonymity which can sometimes result in online sharing of content that, if people reflected on it a bit, might not be information they want out there. There are consequences to this. For example, in the recent past people have lost their jobs, cyberstalked their exes, inadvertently alerted their insurance companies to potential fraud, and even accidentally posted embarrassing photos of British spies in speedos. While these are perhaps more extreme examples of the possible consequences of online over-sharing, it's rare to find a person that hasn't had some form of online gaffe.
In the past few weeks, I've gotten dozens of requests for letters of recommendation. I'm willing happy to do so, and have, in the process, been advising students to make sure that any social networking sites are made private. Recently, admissions committees have been using such materials to help make their decisions about which students to allow into programs. And, Facebook does not seem to be helping students make that cut.
A new survey of 500 top colleges found that 10% of admissions officers acknowledged looking at social-networking sites to evaluate applicants. Of those colleges making use of the online information, 38% said that what they saw "negatively affected" their views of the applicant.
So, a word to the wise. Keep up with the new privacy features on Facebook, and when they are instituted, update your privacy settings. In the meantimes, make your profile private, consider the use of lists to control the flow of outgoing information, and most importantly, don't ever put anything on Facebook that you would be horrified to find the world at large viewing. Once it is on the web, it is there forever.
Remember, your mom could be watching.
This was interesting to me since I found this post in your blog after searching for my first name in a search engine. My previous comment was under the first page of search results.
ReplyDeleteHopefully my admitted biased towards anatomically correct cartoons does not become a factor in my grad school applications.
One thing I find interesting about social networking sites is the acceptable familiarity one has with one another's 'statuses' regardless of any direct (by direct i mean specifically person to person communication) interaction with that person. For me at least, i find that it is becoming increasingly common for someone to ask me or someone I know questions about things they said to another person or posted to their page. 'i read you've eaten at this restaurant.." or "you and your friend went to that show, right?"
I have to wonder if either this is a more efficient form of communication because it gives people obvious cues and hints to what is going on with another person. Or if it makes people kind of lazy in their interactions and just encourages others to be nosy. Is reading someone's comments on another persons page similar to reading someone else's personal letter that they left out on a table?
I think these sites create a unique type of interaction that falls somewhere between hearsay/gossip and spying. It isn't technically one or the other. Information gathered by gossip requires an external source/interpretation, and spying implies that that the onlooker's presence is hidden-- which obviously isn't the case with public comments. I guess the conflict that arises is, as you mentioned the anonymity that being on a computer suggests, except the impact and interpretations present themselves with real consequences.
Kyirsty
While the spoof about keeping tabs on your kids is hilarious, it is (sadly) not far from the truth. I know plenty of moms who think it is cool to have a Facebook profile, not because it facilitates interaction with their own peer group but because it gives them one more way to be involved in their little darlings' lives.
ReplyDeleteI feel a bit sorry for young people these days. When I was first in college (back in the 70s) I was expected to talk to my parents --on the phone out in the hall of the dorm--once a week on Sundays. The rest of the time I didn't have to be available to them, and their knowledge of my life was limited to what I chose to tell them in those weekly conversations. I was pretty much free to make my own decisions--and also free to live with the consequences of those decisions. Through today's technology it is easy for parents to be much more involved in their kids' daily lives, perhaps to the parents' delight but the kids' detriment. This increased parental involvement and oversight can be a disservice to our young people, diminishing their opportunities to rely on themselves, figure things out by themselves, learn who they are, make their own mistakes and to grow from those mistakes. I believe there is a plausible argument to be made that this trend of overly-involved parenting (facilitated by available technology) has helped fuel the phenomenon of delayed adulthood we see today--not that there's anything wrong with that!
I think that Facebook can be a very useful tool to keep in touch with people you don't see on a regular basis, or find people you haven't seen in a long time and catch up with them. But I also realize there are creepers out there who want to cause harm to others, and I believe that you should be careful and keep your profile private.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to find out that the research done on how accurate a person's personality is on Facebook compared to the real life person, and how the Facebook personality was more like their real life personality. I would like to know more about the research that was done on that and see how they questioned people, because I think that will affect the answers people might have given. In addition, it makes me wonder what people are leaving out of their Facebook Wall Posts, Pictures, etc. because you don't know what they are really thinking to themselves or just not posting.
In response to the last comment about parents and their child's relationship in college being different with Facebook, I would have to say that it really depends on the student and their parents. My parents and I are very close, so to me, I don't mind them being my friend on Facebook, I have nothing to hide. Also, the college student can make the choice on whether or not they want their parents to be their friend on Facebook, or to whether they even have a Facebook profile, so I don't see how it would be a detriment to their lives. It is the person's decision who their friends are, and if they choose not to be friend's with someone, then they have to be prepared for that person's reaction, and live with those consequences. I mean, if you are ashamed of something you did (for example going to a party and getting wasted), and don't want your parents knowing, ok, that is your prerogative. But if you don't want others to know that you went out and got wasted last night, maybe you should reconsider going to parties and getting wasted or reconsider having it on your Facebook, where everyone can see it.
Jane is right about how the whole spoof thing. In fact, I know a lot of people who actually either don't add their parents or have a completely different persona just because their parents are watching.
ReplyDeleteMoving on...
It doesn't surprise me that the profiles are accurate to a person's personality but what I find interesting is the personalities and beliefs of people when they are anonymous. If you need an example just look at a youtube video and read some of the comments. I believe it's that sense of being unknown and lack of consequences that can really reveal a lot about peoples beliefs. When no one knows who you are, you can get away with saying racist and sexist comments and not get punished. As a matter of fact, you may get rewarded or approved from other people if they agree with you or laugh at your statements. Hopefully anonymous commenters are not an indication of our societies true beliefs, because if it is the future does not look bright.
Facebook is definitley a good tool for social networking and staying in contact with people you wouldn't otherwise talk to. However, some serious problems can arise if you are not careful to monitor what is put on Facebook with your name on it. I personally know several people who have gotten in trouble from their school and work regarding information/pictures posted on their facebook accounts. Despite trying to putforth the best possible public image, it is still difficult to know exactly what pictures are on the internet of you.
ReplyDeleteAs for my mom checking my facebook account...this is not something I perosonally have to worry about, however, many college students do. The Onion newsclip posted in the blog is a very funny and sadly very real spoof. Like Jane mentioned earlier, a parent's ability to oversee and monitor their kids actions has increased dramatically as Facebook gains popularity. Just having a cell phone made me more accessible to my mom than I would have liked during my college experience. Having access to pictures of me on Facebook brings this to a whole new level, however.
As for the relationship between a person's profile and their actual personality traits: I find it not surprise that there is a correlation. Despite trying to portray a polished image of one's self, it is very easy for the comments, pictures of you, etc. to show your true self.
Overall, one could make an argument to say that having a facebook does more harm than good...
Gina Bua - Human development class:
ReplyDeleteI understand Jane's perspective about lack of privacy for today's college students. But given that grad schools and potential employers screen applicants by content seen on social networking sites, users should be cautious about their postings. Both my children (in their 20s) have added me as a friend on Facebook. And they have learned from their friend's mistakes on what is appropriate for posting as wall comments.
I believe that if you don't want your mom to read it, it belongs in a text message or e-mail, not on your wall for everyone to read. I have noticed that one in-law has not grasped the concept that comments of an extremely personal (or questionably moral) nature should not be posted in their thoughts for the day.
I agree with Gabi that users of social networking sites need to be aware of the privacy protocols. However, I do find that some user's lack of self-filtering allows us to make better judgements on we may decide to date or allow to become close friends.
Francis Phillips from Human Development
ReplyDeleteThe whole facebook privacy issue should be more of a matter of common sense than anything. If facebook really does provide accurate insights into who we are, then posting anything you wouldn't want a parent to see is ridiculous unless you don't expect your friends to think very highly of you either. It's puzzling that many of us want the perceptions that our family and potential schools or employers have of us to be different from those of our friends. In reality, if it's something that one of those groups looks down on then there are probably people in all of the other groups who look down on it too. In the end, the real truth will come out. An undergrad student with pictures of himself at the bar every night is probably likely to lose a level of respect among his peers along with the respect that he loses from a potential grad school or employer.
I was really surprised that Facebook and other social networking sites do actually convey rather accurate portraits of someone's life and personality. I have a Facebook and I often wonder what it says about me. I mean what do my friends or people who know me think of me when they go to my page and see my pictures and such. It's natural for me to want to portray myself in a positive way, who
ReplyDeletewants to have negative comments being said about you or people judging you by your bad comments or bad pictures. It's surprising that social networks are becoming such a big part of socializing and technology overall is advancing. It’s all about facebook, twitter and texting! Nobody calls to chat anymore, much less write letters. I wonder if snail mail is hurting!
Zuly Barron
Human Development Fall 2009
Alex Freed from Human Development
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha! That's a really funny video. It's so true, too.
I'm not friends with my mother (Unless she disguised her page as one of my friends'...) because I don't want her looking over my shoulder all the time.
On the other hand, I've learned not to post anything that I would want her knowing about anyways. It's not just my mom I have to worry about; I am friends with people from church, relatives, family friends... There's nothing more embarrassing than posting "I hate my parents, they're so stupid" to your status and then having everyone from church saying they'll "pray for you" or messaging you about the terrible example you are setting.
(Guess if that's a true story or not...)
I guess if I had a point to make, it's that social networking websites are changing cultures all over the world.
I do feel that facebook is a great way to keep in touch with people that you are not able to talk to frequently in other ways such as the phone or face to face. However, during thanksgiving when the discussion began to turn towards facebook/myspace/twitter and I commented "what did we do without facebook," jokingly, a man responded "we wrote letters, we talked face to face, we got together in person and it worked just fine!" It's unfortunate in some cases that we have gotten away from person-person social interaction in some cases and turned to sitting on the computer to talk to each other. In some ways though, I am very thankful for facebook to be able to keep in touch with people, and honestly yes, to express myself. It can be a good way to vent sometimes, or share something that you are happy about quickly. Our society is all about doing things quickly anymore. We are just keeping up with pace and change.
ReplyDeleteI was also a little surprised that there was so much accuracy in portraying someone's actual personality. That is interesting and is some cases almost disturbing such as when I see a profile that is based on violence and negativity. It can be exciting when I get to see more of my friends and others personality who I cannot see in person very much.
As we learned in human development class and sicussed how each of we percieves ourselves as better looking, more athletic, and overall great so to speak than is realistically possible, facebook/myspace/twitter seems to match up with this as far as I can see. For example status posts talking about "I did so good at this..." or all the pictures put up, often the majority with pictures of the person who's profile it is in them as opposed to friends and family. Sometimes this varies however and there are just as many or more of other people.
Around me it seems to becoming a thing of culture, but expanding. There are more and more people joining, young, old, including parents. Rather than just being careful what you put on facebook because your mom may be watching, after seeing pictures of a friend who another friend put up, it might be just as important to keep tabs on which pictures you are tagged in and if employers are also watching.
This was actually very interesting to read... I have had friends who have been turned down from jobs and internships because of things posted on their facebook by either themselves or something someone else posted. For this reason, I for sure make sure things aren't posted I don't want up for the world to see. If there is a picture I don't like, I un-tag myself, and I am sure to NOT post things on friend's pages that I think could come back and harm them in the long run as well. Something you have to keep in mind with this type of social networking is anyone can have ways of checking things about you. Some people are very computer savvy and when signing up for something like Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace, you are taking the risk of future employers, maybe even in-laws, seeing things about you you may not want shown to everyone. You just have to realize that's a risk of having something like this in the first place. Even if you un-tag yourself from a post or a picture, chances are they may have been posted a little while before you signed on so there's a good chance others have already seen it. I remember in high school and HUGE group of students posted pictures on their MySpace's of parties and the principles came across them.... Those students got in a lot of trouble, weren't respected by teachers and administrators as much and got to do a lot of work around the school as sort of a punishment. Especially the athletes and kids with honors and things along those lines because I believe they're held to a higher standard.
ReplyDeleteThese are the types of things you MUST consider and think about before signing up for a social network. Even though a picture may look "cool" to you and your friends... if it's completely innappropriate, is it worth posting and risking not getting a job or scholarship because the higher up people checked in on you?
Kayla
Kristen Roland says....
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic and so relevant to today's online habits. It's clear that modes of communication are changing. With change it is important to be fully informed of the new conditions/workings and to develop a set of personal boundaries and expectations. Know how to work the privacy settings and consider how visible you want to be to others (just friends, friends of friends, friend's parents?). Do you want to use it as a peer socializing application or a professional networking tool? Both of those profiles will be you, it will just be geared towards different audiences. And that's okay. Set up expectations for yourself as to whom you will accept the friendship of and whom you will not. Have confidence in your decisions and stick to what you're comfortable with. I use my facebook as a site to share info, pictures, ideas, etc. with my social cohort. I do not accept the friendship of my parents or try to network professionally. I have fun with it and keep it private. And these intentions may change as I get older and graduate...(and need a non-student job).