For the purposes of this assignment, I took to analyzing a friend's Facebook and MySpace profiles, having her assess the accuracy of profile information, and then cross-referencing the two resulting sets of data to find evidence indicative of the theories discussed in class. Facebook information that was analyzed include: profile picture, status updates, general info, friend list, group list, contact info, personal info, and educational info. MySpace was analyzed base on her Details section, which includes information like her relationship status, sexual orientation, body type, and more.
First, I had my friend evaluate the accuracy of the information that she provided on the social networking sites, based on the 1 to 5 scale, and then I averaged the results that she gave. Her Facebook profile averaged a 4.9 and her MySpace averaged close to 3.5. My estimated accuracies averaged in at 4.2 and 3.2 for Facebook and MySpace respectively.
As I anticipated, the majority of her inaccurate or manipulated information was found in
the conventional signals, which are characteristics of an individual that are only conventionally associated. These were found in the sections of her Facebook profile which dealt with personal interests and activities, group affiliations, and friend associations. Many of her activities and interests are purely fluff, were something that she added on a flight of fancy or with which she was briefly infatuated, or were items that had yet to be removed--generally, they were interests and activities that do not accurately portray who she is, as I have known her. When it came to her group and friend associations, she made it perfectly clear that many of those "Facebook friends" are not people who she actually considers to be friends (in fact, she doesn't know many of them). Most of the groups that she belongs to were added with little thought and should not be taken as seriously considered affiliations.
Assessment signals were manipulated in her MySpace profile, where she posted inaccurate height and body type--something I was able to confirm through measurement. There were many other items on her MySpace profile that were blatantly false, and when I asked her about this, she stated that she doesn't use her MySpace account in anticipation of actually interacting with any of the people with whom she is friends. On Facebook, however, she is much more likely to come face to face with those she is friends with, and so she is much more careful in her deception. This is highly suggestive of her need to not simply lie while on Facebook (to appear attractive to others), but to lie subtly and strategically (to appear honest to others).
Comments:
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/09/assignment-4-truth-unfolds-or-does-it.html
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/09/although-facebook-profiles-are-becoming.html
2 comments:
I thought it was interesting that you also evaluated your friends MySpace profile as well, I am not a user so I did not realize that MySapce provided the opportunity to share so many more assessment signals than facebook. I found similarly to you that most of my friend’s activities and interests listed on facebook were either fictional or unsubstantial, compared to what they do in real life. It was a surprise to me to think that even close friends can try to portray this sense of ought self. I believe that people feel much for comfortable being selective about their presentation or even manipulating it when they are creating a mediated form of communication, like their profiles.
I also find it interesting that you cross referenced two social networks with completely different user interfaces that tell different information to viewers. I suppose the fact that myspace has a more complicated interface that allows a user more control in design and layout than the plain white background associated with facebook is part of the reason that your friend “lied” more frequently on mySpace. Perhaps it is harder to lie about things in a textual form, which is recordable and since according to the theory based on media features, people are less likely to lie in recordable media. Also, on myspace, lies need not be necessarily in the form of text or stating your favorite tv show or band. Just the choice of background, clips you load, and music you play create a mood that is many assume is indicative of your personality, however it is this assumption that leads to perceived dishonestly, not necessarily conscious or actual lies.
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