4. Facebook Lies

Many people use their online profiles to create impressions of themselves that are often more idealistic versions of themselves than their true selves. Take my friend, whom I will call John. John uses his Facebook profile to transmit information about himself that is often highly selective in order to create a favorable impression on those who see his profile. I asked him to rate the truthfulness behind what is said on his profile, following Catalina’s study. The major assessment signals, such as where he went to school, his gender, and birthday were all accurate, however, he says (on his profile) that his hometown is New York City, whereas the actual town is just outside the city, called Jericho. He says that most people have never heard of Jericho, NY, so he just says that he is from New York City. He claims that this is for simplicity’s sake, however there is a certain status associated with living in New York City that perhaps he wanted to be associated with, so he included it in his profile, even though it is not entirely true.

He was much more creative with his deception in terms of conventional signals. When I asked him about how truthful his activities and interests are, he indicated that on a scale of 1-5, these sections were probably a 3 in terms of truthfulness. He says that many of these activities were things that he was active in during his freshman or sophomore years, but not so much anymore. I asked him why he keeps them on his profile, and he said that it is a mix between being too lazy to take them off and because he still wants the status or prestige associated with those activities, even though he is not actively involved in them. He indicated that the items listed in the Music and Movie sections of his profile were certainly things that he enjoyed, but he said that he held back on a lot of bands and films that he really liked a lot more than some others he listed, but that aren’t considered “cool” or “Indie enough” so he elected not to include these things. When I asked him to provide some examples, he responded with “no further comment.”

The magnitude of John’s lies were quite small in that they were mostly half-true and only slightly enhanced the impression he gave off. However, the frequency of these small lies was much greater – he seemed to lie at least once in each of the sections that included conventional signals in his profile. He would probably not lie to a person face to face about things like his interests, activities, favorite music and movies, but it seems that Depaulo’s Social Distance Theory is relevant in describing this case in that lying is uncomfortable – he would not lie about these things in F2F interaction, but the social distance associated with online profiles and the difficulty of verifying the truth behind this kind of information makes it easier for him to pass on something that is not entirely true in order to enhance the impression he gives off through his profile. This is also described using the Identity-Based Digital Deception Model, as the information he includes in his profile is intentionally controlled, technologically mediated, and it creates a false impression in people who look at his profile and believe that he is truly associated with all of the things that he lists. John seemed to follow what Goffman and Baumeister described as Self-Presentation Goals – he attempted to appear attractive by presenting false or half-true facts about his life that increased his status or prestige. Also, he attempted to appear honest in that he only included things that he could actually talk about if someone asked him, based on having some association, although distant, to the activity/interest/music/movie that he included in his profile, thereby anticipating future interaction, as Goffman and Baumeister describe.

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