Our generation knows everything about one another. How can we not? With websites such as Xanga, MySpace and Facebook, our profiles are splashed across the Internet for nearly everyone to see. Facebook, in particular lends itself to be the most inviting since it has become the "cool" site where you can secretly stalk any of your friends without them even knowing it. Facebook also allows for easy access to digital deception. There is nothing on Facebook that cannot either be left out or changed completely, including your name and your picture. Anyone can change their display name on Facebook so the idea that Facebook correctly shows everyone's real name is false. A part of your personality such as a name which would normally be an assessment signal since it is directly related to a person's character, can easily be changed in a format such as Facebook. We have the ability to be whomever we want, even on Facebook.
I interviewed one of my friend's about her profile only to find out that she was extremely truthful in what she wrote. Like myself, she kept her details to a minimum, but she did share certain personality characteristics with the rest of the Facebook world. Her contact information was rated as a 5 because her name, email address, IM screenname and residence were all correct. She felt no need to lie about information like this because she does not mind if people contact her in a lean mediium such as email or IM, and she felt that putting her sorority house as a residence would help let people know how to contact her along with a little bit of an idea as to what type of person she is. However, when I asked why she did not put her phone number on her profile, she quipped that she does not want random people that are not her close friends to have her phone number. Understandably so, she is worried that putting her phone number on Facebook for all to see would be too invasive of her privacy. I know that she is generally a very open person, but she is definitely not the type of person who would give her phone number out to someone without actually telling them face to face. Telephone conversation is a richer medium than either email or IM and she does not want people contacting her by phone unless she really knows them. My friend's relationship status is posted on Facebook as well, but it is listed as, "In a Relationship With..." and the person is one of her best friends who happens to also be female. Anyone who knows my friend would see this as just part of her funny and sarcastic personality, so she is being extremely truthful in the way that she portrays this type of information on Facebook.
When it comes to my friend's interests, she was a little less accurate and truthful simply because some of the information was posted in a joking manner. Like her relationship status, my friend posted some funny quotes that really encapsulate her sarcastic personality. She rates her books, movies, music, etc. at 4's simply because they are conventional signals that are constantly changing as time goes on as she listens to, reads and sees new material. The information that she has on her profile now completely describes her actual personality. She is funny and eclectic, and her "Favorites" section definitely accurately reflects this. However, it is definitely true that she still wants to make herself look good as everyone does when they have the ability to control what people see about them. The selective self presentation model fits really well here because my friend is choosing what information or photos to post about herself so that other people will see her in a good light. Her photo right now is a picture of when she was five years old, and when I asked her why she chose to post this picture, she asserted to me that it makes her look cute. She chooses to have everyone see a picture of her when she was extremely innocent and adorable. After all, no one can make fun of a five year old little girl without feeling a little guilty. Even though the Facebook picture is an assessment signal since our appearence does not really change, she chose to post a picture of herself as a child which does in fact portray to others a very different persona of herself.
When it comes to my friend, her Facebook profile was extremely small in magnitude because she really did not lie at all. She was very honest in how much information she chose to divuloge about herself, and other than the picture which was chosen to elicit an engaging response from others, the magnitude of her lies was very minute. She also had a very low frequency of lies since she barely lied at all. My friend is happy with the way she created her Facebook profile, and I am as well because it truly does show the real her. It is an accurate portrayal of the fun, interesting and adorable girl that I know and love.
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/09/4-cancun-or-bahamas.html
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/09/4-little-black-facebook.html
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2 comments:
I agree that scope has a big deal to do with lying opportunities. Along with media richness (and the Prof's one, too) theory, wherein we have more opportunities to lie in richer media. If there are a lot of blank fields, then there is less opportunity to lie.
I wish you ahd used the number scale along with your friend, knwoning what you know about her. It would be an interesting comparison, side by side. I'm sure you have your own notions; I wish they were quantified and comparable.
I agree completely with your view on assesment signals. There are very few true ones on the Internet. And, I found that in the breakout where we were asked to list them, I found it much more difficult to list them for CmC.
In your first paragraph, you mention how "there is nothing on Facebook that cannot either be left out or changed completely, including your name and your picture." While that is very true, I think that would never happen, or happen extrememly rarely, especially for people who have friends. If your subject were to put up pictures of a stranger, she might be deceiving somebody she has never met before, but surely her friends would say something. If all of a sudden your subject changed all of her contact information, again, someone whom she has never met would probably never know that she is lying--but what about everybody else that actually knows her? And if her friends did see her deception, wouldn't they say something? I know I would probably post on my friend's wall, questioning his reasons for lying to everybody. If the stranger was looking at the wrong profile picture and wrong contact information, but then saw my comment on the wall, he would know that the subject was lying. I guess I am just trying to say that, while it is very possible to lie on Facebook, it wouldn't be very easy to uphold that self-selected image one is trying to portray.
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