For this assignment, I tried to think of a friend whose profile I thought would be the most deceitful on Facebook. When I came across this particular person I thought she was perfect. When I told her that I wanted to ask her about the accuracy of her profile she laughed and that laugh told me that I made a wise decision. Her profile was the typical case of selective self presentation and the hyperpersonal model. I used the same categories in previous studies to assess the degree to which she deceptively created her profile.
Physical appearance: Since Facebook doesn't require specifics about height and body type, it is usually up to the individual to use conventional signals to include this information in their "personal info". In this section, she stated that she was very tall and slim which is true and measured up to her accuracy which she rated with a 5. This was probably due to the fact that her picture is right there to disprove any misleading information that she may have given about her appearance. It could have also been because of the recordibility of her profile according to Hancock, which would make her want to appear as honest as possible.
Social Status: As for this category, she used her cornell.edu email, an assessment signal, to create the account. Although she didn't include any income information, she used Cornell to set her status as a high class intellectual. However, when it came to her occupation sector, she admitted that she "embellished it a little" to attract future employers with the experiences that she had from previous internships when in fact she did not work during the summer. And due to this she rated the accuracy of this category with a 3.5.
Relationship Information: This was the most deceitful category of all. She listed that she was married to her best friend. She rated this category with a 2 and said that she only did it because she loves her to death and isn't looking for a relationship anyway. Although all of her friends know that she is not married to her best friend, strangers don't and she used this conventional signal to keep it that way. Here is where she displayed her most strategic deception.
Habits and Interests: She rated her habits and interests with an accuracy of 5. To me this category was not deceiving at all as anyone who knows this girl knows that she loves music and dancing.
Beliefs: She was very descriptive about her religion in saying that she was a Roman Catholic and not just a Christian. She rated her accuracy with a 4 because did not list her views about politics. To me this was actually deceitful because she would come off as someone who doesn't care about politics to a typical person viewing her profile, but this in fact is not the case.
Age: Although she did not lie about her age she did not include the year in which she was born and because of this she rated this category with and accuracy of 4.5. The magnitude of this deception is very small as her age can easily be proved by her profile picture and the fact that she is a college student.
3 comments:
I think it's interesting that your friend included a section about physical appearance on Facebook. Usually, people let pictures speak for themselves, and their personal info is more often about their hobbies and their likes, the things that make them "fun" rather than "physically attractive", or at least, in my experience, that's the way it's been.
As I mentioned in another post, many people actually do say they're married to their best friends. This is less a lie, than another means to express oneself, in my opinion. There is no "Best Friend: Enter Name Here" section in your info, and saying who your best friend is does say something about you, so this may, in fact, just be another piece of information that she is giving out in a roundabout way, rather than actively trying to present herself as married.
What you did say about her political views though, I thought, was a good point to make. If I read a profile like that, I would also assume that politics aren't important to the person, but since you know otherwise, that is something deceptive, though once again I wonder if it's intentional? Does she purposely keep it off her profile so that people don't bother her with debate?
I'm interested in determining how much people are skewing their profiles nowadays with the threat of potential employers checking out their profile. I have many friends who have changed their privacy settings so that others couldn't view their tagged photos. Many are worried about how their lifestyles will be judged or intepreted. Your friend embellished her employment information. I wonder how an employer would percieve this obvious deviation. Anyone with her resume would know she was lying on her profile and question this deception.
I actually think that, in this way and others, Facebook could be a handy tool for employers. I believe that people would lie more on a resume than they would on their Facebook profile. While Facebook may not display some importnat facets of the individual that a resume does, namely education information, employment history, and references, it does present a convincing support of the person's personality. No need for the frivolous "Hobbies" section on a resume, rock-climbers can now prove their passion with vivid photo albums. You can tell a family man or a social butterfly from a introvert. i'm really compelled to see how Facebook enters the mix of the hiring processs.
It seems you picked a very interesting person, which makes your story so much more appealing. I really enjoyed your entry. I have to admit that I have come accross very few profiles where the person says that he or she is married to a close friend. I really don't think this says much about them being close to their friend as someone else mentioned, but it's more a fear of having to be placed in a relationship category you might not be pleased with, and not choosing a category is ALSO a visible choice. I have noticed at least from some friends, that they wish to appear playful and almost unaware that they are single (for the most part) or in a relationship they aren't very fond of. Im not saying that THEY personally arent aware, but it helps them avoid the question...
what is your relationship status?
I personally dont understand it, but again from the people I have seen doing it, I know it is for a more strategic purpose of not having to answering the question, yet at the same time protecting themselves from appearing deceitful. The same goes for those that put their birth dates but coincidently leave out the year they were born on. Oops.
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