A completely truthful, although incomplete, Facebook profile

For this assignment, I decided to do evaluate the Facebook profile of one of my friends. The entire idea of Facebook is that friends, and only friends, can find each other, communicate, and more, which is unlike other mediums where complete strangers are meant to interact. For this reason, I don’t think that identity-based deception is very prevalent. People on Facebook, except in rare cases, are who they say they are, and this is supported by the great number of assessment signals such as school/network, pictures, and interactions with others that are made public through wall posts. However, message-based deception, which is possible through the great number of conventional signals that encompass the majority of the profile itself, is very prevalent. I think the most important characteristic to discuss when it comes to the psychological space of Facebook profiles is selective self-presentation. Every field, such as favorite music and movies, is determined entirely, and often very carefully, by the profile’s owner, making these sections very easy to fake with no easy way of determining what is and is not true. Pictures and wall posts can even be removed or edited. Additionally, these fields containing the conventional signals can, if the user wishes, be omitted from their profile altogether! This is truly selective self-presentation at its most obvious. Not only is this medium asynchronous, but the user can portray themselves any way that they want in their profile, and simply remove any portrayals of themselves by others that they wish.
I chose my friend because he is very involved with CMC, much more than most people. Not only is he on AOL Instant Messenger and Facebook incessantly, but he also posts daily, becoming a “regular”, on an asynchronous forum dedicated to Nike sneakers. It is safe to say that he enjoys CMC as much as he does FtF, and is the type of person that would prefer to use text messaging rather than an actual phone call, even for quite elaborate interactions. This behavior is in direct contract with the Media Richness Theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984), and it seems he prefers to have less efficient (possibly less synchronous…) communication in favor of leaner media (to give him more time to plan his response perhaps?) It is also possible, considering that he is a very independent person, that he is somewhat introverted and focused on himself, and for this reason he prefers mediated communication, in line with O’Sullivan’s (2000) Impression Management Model. For the simple reason that he is so involved in CMC, and others know him to be this way, I expected him to be quite truthful and open in his portrayal through Facebook, with it being such a major part of his life and social interactions. It turned out that this was indeed the case.
Believe it or not, the entirety of his profile was true, everything from his addiction to British rap to his watching of MTV reality shows, which, as quite distinct and odd interests, could spur possible over-attribution by fans of the like through the Hyperpersonal model. The truthfulness in his profile makes sense considering how his online persona is such a major part of his life, and the amount of interaction that he has with the people he interacts with online, including FtF, would not allow deception to go unnoticed. What is worth talking about, however, is what he chose to omit. He decided to omit his religious views, political views, and admitted to un-tagging pictures in which he didn’t look good. It is possible that he did this in order to keep his views, which were possibly not agreeable to some people, hidden or speculative(although he maintained that he thought it was because people wouldn't care to know), while maintaining his physical attractiveness by preventing any unflattering pictures of him to be made public. In doing these things, he selectively self-presented in order to show his best possible self.