The facebook profile consists of many different parts. There is the basic information section that contains information about one’s sex, relationship status, hometown, and other simple information. The next section, the contact section, allows one to fill in his or her email address, screen name, address, phone numbers, and multiple other means of ways to contact someone. Next is the personal section, which allows one to list his or her activities, interests, favorite movies, favorite books, favorite quotes, and any additional “about me” information. There is an educational section and work section as well. There is also a place for one to post his or her picture. Although there are many sections with many different questions about oneself, most everything is optional.
I had my best friend rate each section of her profile on a scale from 1 (completely inaccurate) to 5 (completely accurate). She rated all five sections as being completely accurate, 5. When I reviewed her profile, to the best of my knowledge, she was completely accurate. There was no deception and therefore no frequency of deception.
We can compare this information and determine whether or not it lines up with the Feature Based Approach. The Feature Based Approach states that certain media features are conducive to deception. The Feature Based Approach states that with synchronous media people are less likely to lie. The Feature Based Approach states that the less recordable a media is, the more likely someone is to lie. Finally, the Feature Based Approach states that the more widely distributed a media could potential be, the less likely people are to lie. The Feature Based Approach states more people lie over the phone than any other form of communication, while people are most honest using email. Looking at facebook, it is asynchronous, somewhat difficult to record (because one can easily edit his or her profile), and widely distributed. According to the Feature Based Approach, facebook should be a form of media that one would find a lot of deception. The results from my experiment do not support the Feature Based Approach, however.
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4 comments:
Mallory-
I found it very interesting that your friend was found to be completely accurate in her Facebook profile. Many people carefully choose to list the exact activities they are in; their favorite books, television shows, and movies, in order to control their self-presentation. They hope to attract a certain group of people who would form a favorable impression of them.
I agree that Facebook profiles should be compared to the Feature Based Approach of online deception. However, I do think that Facebook is synchronous because of “the wall” application. I do agree that Facebook’s recordability is very low because profiles can be constantly updated. But, I do not follow your explanation of how distributed they are. Distribution has to do with how physically far away people are from each other when they are on Facebook and using the synchronous “wall” to respond to each other. As long as the two people are physically far away, then it is considered to be distributed. Even though Facebook meets two out of the three criteria for the Feature Based Approach, in my opinion, I do not know if that is enough support for the Feature Based Approach.
Mallory,
I was interested by your post because I also found that my friends whose profiles I looked at lied very little if any at all. First of all, I think you did a great job of introducing the medium of Facebook. I can only reccomend that you define which categories are assessment signals and which are conventional signals. This may help in your analysis of how people may lie on Facebook.
I too applied the Feature Based Approach, but I found that it did apply. I was interested by your explanation because it seems to make sense either way. While I agree with you that Facebook is asynchronous, I thought that it could fall under the category of recordable. With the new addition of the news feed, it is easy to view what other users are posting and how they are editing their profiles. I do agree that it can be widely distributed. I feel that it can support the Feature Based Approach considering how often users frequent their homepage, which would contribute to the snychronicity.
I think you proposed a very interesting idea in relating Facebook to the Feature Based Approach. However, I think that your description of this approach is slightly off because you state that Facebook’s synchronicity and wide distribution lead to less lying. The Feature Based Approach states that people are in fact more likely to lie when the media features are synchronous, recordless, and distributed. I do agree with you in your assessment that Facebook is asynchronous. When people post wall messages this is not a simultaneous form of communication. You believe that Facebook is difficult to record, but I think that it is definitely a more recordable form of media. In terms of Facebook’s distribution, I also agree with you that it is a more socially distant media. This evaluation of Facebook only includes distribution as a media feature that influences the Feature Based Approach. Like email, Facebook only has one of three media features, which means that lying is less predominant. Because your friend’s Facebook profile was very honest and accurate, this in fact follows the Feature Based Approach.
Hey Mallory,
I found your post to be very interesting. I think you made some valid points on why your experiment with facebook does not support the Feature Based Approach, but I would like to offer another point of view. I believe that your experiment does support the Feature Based Approach slightly. You claimed that your friend was very honest in her profile. The Feature Based Approach states that people are less likely to lie on more widely distributed media and facebook is very widely distributed so the theory predicted your friend’s honesty. The Feature Based Approach also states that people lie less on asynchronous media and you claimed that facebook is an asynchronous environment; another indicator of some validity to the Feature Based Approach. The Feature Based Approach states that people lie less on easily recordable media. I would argue that facebook is extremely recordable. Even though a profile is easily editable, most changes appear on someone’s newsfeed or are highlighted when people look at a recently edited profile. Also, at any moment that someone is on your profile, they can take a snapshot of it and save the evidence for later, so facebook is extremely recordable. While these might not have been concerns that led to your friend’s honesty, her honesty on facebook does support them. I see why might have analyzed things the way you did but I just see things a little differently.
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