Meet Subject X. Subject X was put through the “Two-step Approach” where she did a self-report of herself regarding her Facebook profile and then I conducted a cross-validation from the information she gave me with the facts I knew about her to check if it all matched up.
Subject X’s information given was as follows and is rated on the scale of 1 (completely inaccurate) -5 (completely accurate):
- Relationship status: 3 (nothing was posted)
- Political views: 5
- Hometown: 5
- Interests: 4.5
- Favourite Music/Movies/Books: 4.5
- Quotes: 4
- Groups: 1
- Wall Posts: 4
- Pictures: 5
- Friends: 5
- Other Applications: 2
My findings are as follows:
- Relationship status: 3 (nothing was posted)
- Political views: 5
- Hometown: 5
- Interests: 3.5
- Favourite Music/Movies/Books: 3.5
- Quotes: 3
- Groups: 1
- Wall Posts: 4
- Pictures: 3
- Friends: 3.5
- Other Applications: 3
For the most part I felt Subject X was fairly honest with her profile except there was always room for deception. Since there was no relationship status it is hard to argue she is lying but she is being deceitful because people who do not know her are forced to make assumptions based on their own observations. As far as her favourite music/movies/books and her interests she selected only a handful of what she really does like and the information she put up were all fairly common to see. To name a few examples: stilettos, best friends, Wedding Crashers, Justin Timberlake, etc. Another area where I actually found the most deception was her pictures. She would detag pictures she did not like of herself and keep all the pictures where she looked good in. The pictures in her profile are also predominantly of her “party side” which is inaccurate because she only spends a fraction of her (lets say week) out partying; so this too is very deceiving. I guess the best way to describe her Facebook profile is to say it is just a snapshot of her personality: you do not see it all and there are many assumptions left for interpretation and what she decided to put up ultimately means, from what I gather, she wants people to think of her in that matter and see that side of her.
Side Note: according Catalina's study most people are very truthful about their relationship status on dating websites. Although Facebook is regarded more as a networking site versus an online dating site I do not know if this behaviour would be part of the norm for this study. Would this same rule apply for sites like Facebook?
1 comment:
I liked your comment that the profile can be fairly honest, but at the same time can illuminate only a certain slice of a person's life that they want to show. It's kind of like having the perfectly lit photograph. I wonder to what extend this counts as deception, and to what extend it's completely legitimate.
As for your question about the truth people's online relationship status on Facebook compared to actual dating sites, I would say that Facebook would probably be less accurate. However, this is probably not because people are purposely lying, but rather because they just don't bother to keep it updated. For example, I dated a girl for an entire year last year and we never bothered to "make it official" on Facebook. And now I'm single again, but my profile looks the same as when I was in a relationship. Go figure. :-)
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