4- Facebook: Truthfulness v. Ambiguity

Facebook has become a huge success among college students. It provides web space for personal profiles, allowing individuals to list various details. One problem with facebook is that each person has the ability to lie about certain information, leading many to question users’ credibility. For this assignment, I decided to interview my roommate to ascertain whether or not he was being truthful.

Information I questioned included assessment signals, which have a higher cost to lie (mainly because it is difficult to fake), such as his network, sex, birthday, hometown, religion and email. I also asked him about conventional signals, which have a lower cost (easy to fake), such as activities, interests, personal information (movies, music, etc,…). After the interview, both he and I rated 5’s for every aspect of both signals, indicating that he had not lied at all. However, selective self-presentation was apparent, as he excluded his relationship status (ambiguous meaning) and his high school from his networks (which he told me that he did not want to be affiliated with the school).

After finding that my roommate had not lied on any information in his profile, I believe Media Richness Theory (MRT) best predicts my outcome. MRT argues that there should be an optimal match between the equivocality of a communication task and the richness of the medium. In other words, the ambiguity of communication will differ depending on the richness of the medium in use. Differing with the Cues Filtered-Out theory, MRT asserts that fewer cues in certain cases are better. Although facebook certainly has more cues and more opportunities for feedback than email, its richness is still far less than face-to-face interaction.

With respect to my experience, my roommate took advantage of the fact that facebook offers fewer cues and feedback, but was wary of its recordability. With fewer cues, facebook allows its users to state information that may be understood several ways, such as my roommate stating as his first two activities procrastinating and chilling with friends. Is he really lazy, or does he manage time well and have fun? Additionally, although facebook gives its users many options for giving information, the user does not have to state certain details, which leaves some ambiguity. For example, my roommate has no information on his relationship status (perhaps he wants people to think he is in and out of relationships fast, or maybe he is embarrassed, or perhaps he is not sure?). These ideas fit with the Media Richness Theory, as facebook, with its limited cues and feedback, is not an incredibly rich (but much more so than email) medium. Thus, leaving much room for equivocality. Also, my roommate realized that facebook is very recordable, and consequently was careful to give correct information (hence why all sections of his profile were rated at 5).

With regards to selective self presentation, my findings are also supported by O’Sullivan’s Impression Management Model, in which equivocation is an everyday thing. Additionally, when the locus (or focus) is on the self, people (including my roommate) often prefer a mediated interaction (facebook) to have maximum control over what information is given.