Are You Tough Enough?

I chose option 2, and I analyzed Facebook deception in my friend's profile. For those who aren't familiar with Facebook, it is a social networking site intended to connect people who are mainly in college and high school. Fairly recently, applications such as Bumper Sticker, Top Friends, Jet Man, and Poker have expanded Facebook to more than just a profile site. These applications add to the impressions a member gives off because each application reveals something about his/her character.

 Facebook's conventional signals include everything from the user's status, pictures, and name, to their favorite music and occupation. Everything that a Facebook member can type in themselves is a conventional signal, and can easily be faked. Since Facebook is asynchronous, it would be unusual for another member to question such information. Assessment signals, the information that a member can not easily fake, include: language fluency (jargon doesn't come up on translators), leaving a comment (syntax reveals character), if you are online (if screen name is posted, it says if you are online, away, or idle),  pictures that other people tag of you, comments people leave on your wall, and friends (they have to click accept). Even though these are all assessment signals, a member can manage these signals so that other members only see certain aspects of their character. For example, a member can untag pictures they don't want others to see, and they can delete comments from their wall and comments that they have posted on other people's wall. Video posts are huge assessment signals because unlike a picture or a wall post, they reveal nonverbal cues such as body language, and they show aspects of a person that pictures can hide.

My friend rated everything in his profile a 5 (completely accurate) except for his address. This lie is identity based, rather than message based. The reason for the minimal amount of deception on his profile could be that unlike an online dating profile, Facebook members have already had FtF contact with a majority of their "friends" on Facebook. This would reduce the need to "appear attractive," which is the reason behind frequent lying (Self-Presentation Goals, Goffman and Baumeister).

My friend's explanation for the deception about his address is that he put a "tough" neighborhood in Manhatten (instead of his own) because he wanted to seem tough. This is an example of the social associations tactic of self-presentation. I broadly interpreted this tactic because although he associated himself with a neighborhood, his intention in doing so was to associate with the "tough" crowd of that particular neighborhood. He also used the non-verbal behavior self-presentation tactic because his poses in pictures portrayed the "tough" characteristic that his "ideal" self possesses. When I questioned him about impression management, he revealed that he did untag and delete pictures and comments that made him appear "soft," because they did not fit in with his "ideal" self (Goffman and Jung). He was able to manage his profile because of the editability of Facebook. I know this friend very well, and his analysis of himself is accurate. Also, the magnitude of the lie is considerably small, because one area of Manhatten versus another area does not mean much to a majority of Facebook users. For example, I had never even heard of the area he named until he told me about it, and I only live an hour from Manhatten.