Assignment 4/Option 2 - My Best Friend Lies!?

In considering the anatomy of one of my closest friend’s Facebook profiles, I realized that some of the simplest and most modest aspects of her self-description were unintentionally deceiving. Though her profile consists only of a default picture and a collection of assorted interests, I feel that a stranger could get a good idea of her personality or just as easily come away with a somewhat distorted perception.

To begin, my friend’s default photograph is a picture of her from the 9th grade. While her appearance in the picture is clearly different from her current appearance, a stranger may not have guessed that this was a phony. Rather, a given person might have assumed that her date of birth or year in school was a lie based on her picture. Due to the lean nature of the media, only the viewer who knows my friend will be aware of the contradiction. In addition, while she rated over 50% of her self-proclaimed Interests as 5’s (completely accurate), 20% were 2’s and 20% were 3’s. Her most accurately rated Interests were fairly predictable – what was surprising were her least accurately rated Interests. Some of the things I associate with her very highly (“being late,” along with some jokes with her friends and boyfriend) were not among her most accurately rated. Had I misjudged my good friend? Or been led astray by this lean media? Seeing that 40% of her self-proclaimed Interests were 2’s and 3’s, I considered the medium at hand – Facebook – to blame.

Because, by nature, the Facebook profile is readily editable, hers contained fewer identity-based assessment signals than conventional signals. Conventional signals are entirely temporary and thus prone to change. Her photograph and her interests can be altered with the click of a button. The deception of my friend’s Facebook profile can be attributed both to the Social Distance Theory and the Hyperpersonal Model. The link to the Social Distance Theory is merely that, due to lean media, it is easy and more frequent for deception to occur. The Hyperpersonal Model is a better way to discuss this phenomenon: selective self-presentation is the main factor. According to the theory, people lie subtly to appear more attractive. None of my friend’s lies were drastic, nor were they out of character. They were merely a bit different than her truest beliefs. The reduced cues of such an asynchronous medium as Facebook allowed deception to go unnoticed to the unsuspecting profile viewer.

Essentially, while my friend’s lies were minimal in significance, they were fairly common among her limited profile. They were undetectable to even me until I asked her to assess her interests – thus, proving the effectiveness of lean media subtlety and the truth behind the Social Distance Theory and Hyperpersonal Model.