Seriously, though. Looking back, one of the most striking things we saw last week was the graph of reported vs. actual (weight, height, etc etc)--striking to me because even though deviations existed, the mainstream web surfer was actually relatively accurate. I almost threw my friend out of the assignment when I asked him to rate his profile (photo, info, groups, pictures) and he gave me back all 5's, but I decided to take a look first and make sure I could yell at him later and maybe guilt him into a free sandwich for being clearly wrong and putting no thought into helping me.
As it turned out, my findings vibed with Joe's (see below) so much that I almost feel like writing this post is pointless. Not only was everything exactly what I would have written about this guy, down to the ironic facebook groups and the laid-back photos of him and his girlfriend, but thinking about it later made me feel like that's what I should have expected. (I'd been primed to expect some serious untruths.) Like Joe said, the point of a Facebook profile isn't to stand out as a potential mate--that's a whole different ballgame and the rules are completely different. The goal of Facebook is to make sure your friends are up to date with what's going on in your life. Why would you want to deceive them? Our definition of digital deception is "intentional control of a tech-mediated message to create false beliefs." Finding that among my friends on Facebook is rare, especially given that we're looking for intentional manipulation. I think this is an example of Media Richness Theory--even if he wanted to max out the equivocality and lie about himself, Facebook is asynchronous (thus verifiable) and even with photos and video it's still a text-based environment (very lean). It also looks like a blow to Social Distance Theory--because you can't control who looks at your profile, it's about as impersonal as you can get, and lying should be easy. What's more, I know from real life that he's not one to avoid a white lie. So Social Distance Theory seems like it got it backwards.
Overall, I kind of wish I'd thought about it a little more and chosen the other option so I could play around with deceiving others a little more--that way I could have at least guaranteed some deception to analyze.
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3 comments:
Ken,
I am curious to know if your friend had wall posts visible on his profile or if the pictures tagged of him and whether or not he untagged any of the information. If this is the case then he is deceiving people because he is only keeping certain photos or comments to “portray” him. Also, it is hard to see the person’s actual self just through pictures of him being laid back and with his girlfriend – are there any other elements to his personality?
And ultimately, he decided to show himself in the manner that he did to keep in touch with his friends. He may not want certain pictures or wall posts that seemed out of character visible to his friends whom he tries to keep in contact with during the year. I agree with what your friend is saying regarding how the Facebook profile works; however, I believe there will always be some sort of element which is deceiving to people.
I would have to agree with you completely as far as the ratings go. I received all 5's from three different subjects. I noticed that bgilbert mentioned that she was curious as to whether or not your subject has untagged photos or made adjustments in order to hide something. I disagree with some of those comments because Facebook is so public now that it is often very appropriate to untag photos for reasons such as being in the job market or maybe he does not want his mom to see pictures from his saturday night. The assignment was based on whether or not people lied in their profiles and your subject did not. I agree 100% with your findings of how Facebook is asynchronous and ver text-based and lean. Well done.
I must agree with bgilbert on her comment. Even if it is appropriate for your subject to untag photos or delete wall posts because of their inappropriateness, your subject is still using the idea of impression management and he is using the self-selection theory to uphold his image. I'm sure that there are other aspects to your subject's life than just hanging out with his girlfriend, but that is what he has selected to share with others on facebook. He could have just as easily untagged any photos of him and his girlfriend, but the fact that he has chosen to leave them up for the world to see means that he WANTS people to see that he has a girlfriend; that too portrays a bit of someone's character. I don't think that everybody is HIDING something; they are just choosing which aspects of their life they want to highlight and show off.
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