4 Facebook Deception - "Life is a game...and so is Facebook"

For the Ultimate test in deception, I decided to try the Facebook deception study on my housemate that I’ve lived with for three years. After interviewing my friend, based on Catalina’s study, I found the following results:

Physical Appearance: 4
Social Status: 5
Relationship Information: 5
Habits and Interests: 4
Beliefs: 4

After measuring his height, I found that he was one inch shorter than he had reported on his Facebook profile therefore the magnitude of his self-presentation lie was 1. The frequency presented in Catalina’s study mirrors this deception so therefore I am convinced that he intentionally lied about his height. This may have been due to the fact that he wanted to portray an ideal self or since he is an athlete, he may assume that people look at him a certain way and he wanted to confirm what they believed he looked like (behavior confirmation).

In terms of his weight, he was three pounds heavier than he reported on his profile and therefore the magnitude of his self-presentation lie in this case was three. In terms of weight, however, it is difficult to mention if he intentionally controlled (meaning of digital deception) this information since he “hadn’t updated his profile in a little while” and weight tends to fluctuate on a daily basis. Since, according to Catalina’s study, men seem to lie equally about being lighter or heavier than they actually are I can confirm that his “lie” was no form of digital deception.

In terms of his social status, not only did he rate himself a 5, I confirmed with a number of his friends that he is of the social status he claims on his Facebook profile. He mentioned that “…for the simple fact that [I] am able to check,” he decided it would be in his best interest to tell the truth. If I were to publicly do a cross-validation test, chances are, his friends would look at him differently and this would hurt his reputation. This is a big reason why he didn’t dare lie about his social status.

I’ll put the last two together since they are closely related in terms of what he reported. When I asked why he rated himself a 4 on habits and interests, he did not respond clearly. In fact, he tried to dodge the question. After stalking him about the question, he finally gave in and mentioned that he lied subtly about his habits and interests because he felt “people could relate.” This was the same response he had for why he lied about his beliefs. This is when the fact that deception is strategic, the idea presented in class, hit me as to why he lied. Since Facebook is a essentially a way to make yourself look good, especially if you have a great deal of friends, I came to the conclusion that he strived to make himself look good to the public eye (selective self-presentation) without be so blatant that his deception would easily be picked up.

I pride myself in being a genuine and honest person and for that reason; I’m disappointed that people play this Facebook “game.” I do understand that life is a game in a sense but if you remain true to yourself, the game will play itself and I guarantee that you’ll win.