A facebook profile, if filled out truthfully, is an amazing way to get a look into someone else’s world. It contains everything from pictures of them to their favorite quotes. In my opinion the biggest sections of a facebook profile are the photos, quick snapshot (the top area with quick information about them- name, networks, religion, etc.) contact and personal information, and education and work. While there are many other sections, including new applications I feel that these are the core and more important portions of facebook if you are want to learn about someone. Within these different sections there are many different conventional and assessment signals. An easy example of an assessment signal is his email address. Since under his education section he lists himself as a student you can verify this because of his email address which ends in @clemson.edu. Other examples of assessment signals include his age, gender, name, and employment. Conventional signals are much easier to change and to lie about and are thus found all over a facebook profile. Some of these signals include favorite books, movies, quotes, and TV shows.
In order to better understand digital deception in accordance with facebook I decided to interview a male friend of mine and investigate how accurate his facebook profile is. To accomplish this more effectively we rated the different sections as we moved down the screen. Within his quick snapshot section he rated everything (networks, sex, birthday, hometown, political views, relationship status, and interested in) as 5’s. The only thing he rated differently was what he was looking for. Since he is now in a long-term relationship he isn’t looking for random play, a relationship, or dating anymore, and thus he rated that portion as a 2. He also rated his photos as a 5 because he said that he doesn’t really pick and choose he just uploads pictures and he never untags himself from pictures that others put up of him. (Considering that he has 554 photos uploaded I believe him.)
Another important section of facebook is the contact and personal information section. Within the contact information he rated everything as 5’s because it’s all very straightforward information, his email, phone number, screen name, and they are all updated and accurate. However unlike the contact information which is short and straight to the point his personal information section is overflowing with information. He rated his activities as a 4, interests as a 5, music as a 4, TV shows as a 5, movies as a 4, books as 4, quotes as a 4, and about me as a 5. The ones that he rated lower are because he said that some of his favorites have changed and he hasn’t updated them.
Further down the page we come to his education and work information. This was another easy section for him to rate because all of this information was straightforward, his colleges, high school, employer, job position, and etcetera. He rated everything as 5’s except for one of his job descriptions. His job description for PCC & PGR Construction, “Kick ass job person” he felt didn’t really describe what he was doing and thus rated it as a 2.
On the whole his average rating for self reported was 4.58 and my cross verification average rating came out to be 4.43. There wasn’t much of a difference between his ratings and mine, but the section where I really disagreed with his ratings was personal information. While he rated his activities as a 4, I rated them as a 2 because I know that his is no longer a captain for high school hockey and is no longer on the Statesmen team. Even though it may be due to the fact that he didn’t update, it’s still untrue. Being a good friend with him I definitely agree with rating his interests as 5’s because they are things that we often do together or discuss. I rated his music as a 3 because some of the bands he listed I never really hear him listen to or discuss, but there are still some of his favorites listed in there. I rated his books as a 3 because while he does like the Harry Potter series I can think of other book that he also enjoyed. I also agreed with rating his quotes as a 4 because with the exception of a few it’s very unlikely that you can spend time with him and not hear him quote one of the ones he listed. I rated his about me as a 4 instead of a 5 because I felt like he left some important things about him out.
There are two theories that explain both his honesty and his lack of presentation throughout his facebook profile. Firstly, the Media Richness Theory justifies his reasoning for being honest in most of his sections. Because a facebook profile is an asynchronous and recordable media it is much easier here to tell when someone is lying and thus I feel that he would rather display himself as an honest person than a liar. Selective Self-Presentation is another theory that fits with his profile. Especially in his personal information section I feel that there were some places where he changed what might be true to false by adding in false information in order to present himself differently, like in his music section.
Comments:
http://comm245yellow.blogspot.com/2007/09/a41-truth-is-beautiful-without-doubt.html
http://comm245yellow.blogspot.com/2007/09/assignment-4-impossibility-of-knowing.html
Another important section of facebook is the contact and personal information section. Within the contact information he rated everything as 5’s because it’s all very straightforward information, his email, phone number, screen name, and they are all updated and accurate. However unlike the contact information which is short and straight to the point his personal information section is overflowing with information. He rated his activities as a 4, interests as a 5, music as a 4, TV shows as a 5, movies as a 4, books as 4, quotes as a 4, and about me as a 5. The ones that he rated lower are because he said that some of his favorites have changed and he hasn’t updated them.
5 comments:
Lauren,
First, I think the screen shots were a great way to present your ratings! I wish I had thought of that. Second, I did this assignment as well and found similiar results. I think most people are too lazy to list/update their "favorites." Also, it's difficult to brainstorm your interests since that is so broad of a category. Are we talking about activities, politics, pop culture, acaedemic, or social interests? I think this is the reason some people write things like "shopping, talking, eating" while other write "being cool" or something to that effect. For me, I know it was difficult to create my profile. I didn't want to have to think of the things that best represent my personality, so I chose to omit everything but the basic (assessment signal) information. I think those people who include the conventional signals are those that have an image in mind that they want to proejct such as party girl, macho man, etc. Lastly, I think this experiment is not reliable because we, the judges, are biased from our class learning and also are close friends with those that we pick to analyze. Like you did, I judged my friend's profile and thougth "Ok, he omited the fact that he is ___ and only said he is ___ so that must mean he is lying." However, in an actual experiment, this might be subjective. I do think you could have expanded on the theories portion, but overall good job with your post!
I also commend your use of the facebook photo in the blog post. I have trouble remembering the website to post my blog, so i respect your blogging abilities! I think there are many different types of facebook users. Some intensely, and religiously update/check profiles, while others use it sparingly. It seems as though the friend you analyzed might be in the latter category. One of the reasons people lie online, is because they want to appear attractive to other users, in order to enhance their popularity. It doesnt appear that this was a goal of the user you selected, therefore it makes perfect sense that the information he listed would have been fairly accurate. The user i interviewed for this assignment is an avid facebook member, so my results detected more deception production. It is so interesting how this network, which appears superficial on the surface, is a complicated web that can be dissected and analyzed as such.
Lauren,
This is a great post. Your information is displayed in a logical, concise fashion and it goes into great depth. Additionally, the pictures and images that you inserted only add to the reader being able to understand what you mean and what you are trying to convey. I have one suggestion to possible enrich your posts for the future. When describing the theories which connect to the post, possibly explain specific instances how Selective Self-Presentation is found in this Facebook profile. Give exact examples, such as only giving our certain movie information, or displaying a few favorite bands, to really complete the message to the reader. Also, using theories that are presently being introduced in class is another possibility to really tie all of the information together. Overall, nicely done and I look forward to reading future posts.
Hello,
I feel that many people find it difficult when asked a question about their interest and favorite things to generate a complete list even over time. I myself refuse not to put in broad categories do to fear of leaving something out. I find that even though your results validate Media Richness theory, that it would be easy to lie on facebook under social distance theory. You could easily put down interest that you’ve never done or books you’ve never read and get away with it for the most part. I also believe that it is easy for people to do small subtle lies rather than flagrantly false ones. Self presentation proposes that everyone will tell small lies on CMC in order to still seem honest about their claims. I also agree though that many people aren’t intentionally lying or manipulating data but rather they just don’t constantly update their information, thus most of what goes on in facebook is not digital deception. Excellent post and great work with the pictures to demonstrate your point.
Lauren,
Your post was very detailed and the pictures made it easy to see how you went about evaluating the profile. In your post you brought up the fact that his profile had a lack of presentation. I think this is pretty interesting. A person can choose to withhold information from their profile altogether as opposed to being deceptive. I see both pros and cons to doing this. I think the more information you display, the greater chance you might include something that isn't completely true. Displaying less information can be useful if you want to minimize deception, but the information you do include will have a greater influence on other people's impressions. I would think that in trying to maintain the best impression on an online profile like facebook saying too much can be just as harmful as saying too little.
Eric
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