Facebook in very recent years has become an almost incomprehensible phenomenon for high school and college students. Students spend hours on the site looking at profile pages of friends, events, and groups they belong to. Many update their profile pages religiously--one friend on Facebook I have updates her profile once a day, and her status (a quick "Name" is doing _____ at the top of the profile page) multiple times a day.
The type of information put into Facebook profiles can be categorized according to definitions by Donath of conventional signals (costly displays directly related to the person's characteristics) and assessment signals (characteristics which have lower cost to lie about, and are only associated with the person). Assessment signals one might send on Facebook include name, pictures (direct representations of the person's appearance), gender, religious and political views, networks, some groups (depending on if membership to that group requires administrative approval of the crerator), screename, and e-mail. Conventional signals include major, favorite music, movies, About Me section, interests, activities, and favorite quotes.
I chose a close friend to interview in my experiment so that I could assess the accuracy of what she posted in her Facebook profile. I asked her to rate her name, birthday, political views, religious views, Instant Messanger screenname, activities, interests, music, about me, pictures (i.e did they look like her and accurately depict her life), groups (i.e do they portray who you really are), and added applications. Overall, she believed that she depicted herself very accurately, with an average of 4.41. Having known her a while, I rated her accuracy on the 1-5 scale with an average of 4.25. I believe that although she didn't outright lie, she may have included only positive information about herself in the About Me section, portraying her in a more favorful light. In addition, I have known her to "detag" Facebook pictures, de-associating herself from pictures that do not portray how she wants to appear appearance-wise. Another subtlety that was not completely true was her name. Although her profile name was the name most people call her, she still hadn't legally changed it to the name on the profile. Also, under favorite music she included one artist that she was "obsessed" with at the moment but I have known her to listen to many other artists.
On the whole however, my friend lied more subtly and more frequently in the conventional signals rather than the assessment signals, confirming Donath's Theory. According to Goffman, the goals on online dating websites (Facebook is similar in many ways in that it contains profile information a user is encouraged to self-disclose information) are to appear attractive and honest. To do this, according to the Self Presentation Goals Theory, one must lie frequently and subtly. According to my friend's profile, she certainly lied subtly. There were no outright untruths (all information on her profile was 3 or above). I think part of her motivation was, as the theory predicts, to appear more honest, but also since her Facebook account is mostly viewed by her friends, she would have no choice in many cases but to tell the truth to avoid detection. For instance, since those viewing her profile generally knew what she looked like, she couldn't put up pictures of Heidi Klum and get away with people thinking she was Heidi Klum's sister. Instead, she did a more subtle form of deception, associating herself with pictures that made her look more attractive by tagging the "good" ones and untagging the "bad" ones.
Although I wouldn't say her lies were frequent, they all conformed to a positive image she wanted to portray on her Facebook account. I think this is how many people tailor their Facebook profiles: they alter each signal (most often the conventional signals) subtly and frequently to portray a slightly modified self to those able to view their Facebook profiles. This strategic deception is something we all seem to be guilty of, and conform to the Selective Self-Presentation part of the Hyperpersonal Model in which we emphasize those characteristics that portray us in a positive light, and mitigate those that we do not want to portray.
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2 comments:
Talia, you did a great job of explaining the Goffman’s idea of lying frequently and subtly. I just wonder if "untagging" oneself on Facebook should really be considered lying. In many online situations, people use selective-self presentation to emphasize all of the better aspects of their personality and appearance. It’s not like they are making up characteristics that aren’t there or photoshopping their picture enough to transform them into a wholly different person. I’m not completely sure that untagging a photo is lying about one’s outward appearance as opposed to simply enhancing their look. How is untagging a photo any different than putting on makeup before social interactions in a face-to-face medium? Or how about taking a bunch of pictures with your friend’s camera and then deleting the ones you look the least attractive in? In these cases, one isn’t trying to create something out of nothing. Rather one is merely attempting to improve his or her appearance with the resources available.
Talia,
I really enjoyed reading your analysis of facebook. From my experience, as well as many other people, I think that we tend to come to the conclusion that there is, in fact, not much deception on facebook after taking the time to asses our friends’ profiles. After reading your post I felt that, perhaps, my evaluation was not entirely accurate. Although my friend did not present any blatant lies on her profile, there mere fact that she has control over which details are displayed, creates opportunities for deception to occur. My friend had admitted to slightly editing her facebook picture to make her look tanner and to sorting through her pictures and “de-tagging” the less flattering ones of herself. I think that these examples fit into the category of subtle lies that you had mentioned which explains the way that deception is carried out through a medium like facebook.
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