Facebook is an excellent example of an asynchronous form of communication that allows people to use the hyperpersonal model’s selective self-presentation. Users can control every bit of information on their profile to make themselves appear more attractive than they really are. In addition to appearing attractive to their viewers, Facebook users can also try to appear honest. So if they are to lie about their personal information, they lie subtly to prevent viewers from detecting any deception.
When viewers look at profiles, they tend to glance at the assessment signals (costly displays) such as network information, name, birthday, hometown, etc. However, conventional signals (low cost displays) such as activities, interests, movie, music, books, etc., are subjective to digital deception. Facebook is a lean medium that is mainly composed of conventional signals. According to the social distance theory, it is an excellent medium for identity-based deception.
To evaluate the ideas of attractiveness and honesty, and assessment and conventional signals, I decided to analyze one of my best friend’s Facebook profile. When I told her to rate each element in her profile based on Catalina’s “Deception in Online Dating Profiles” study, she rated herself 5 in each category except for her relationship status, which she gave a 1. Although in most cases, people would give high accuracy ratings for relationship status, my friend said she had an inside joke with one of her college friends. If the Facebook profile was instead an online dating profile, she would not hesitate to indicate herself as "single" and rate herself with a 5. After analyzing each element myself, I found her ratings to be accurate. She claimed that she frequently edits her profile to include her most updated personal information, which I verified to be true.
Even though I found my friend’s profile to be accurate, she may have selectively presented herself (hyperpersonal model's selective self-presentation). For example, maybe she loves a movie that has horrible reviews so she wouldn’t include it in her movie listings to avoid having unattractive qualities. People know that what they put online will be seen by others so factors that may create a negative or unattractive online image may be and probably are excluded from their profiles.
The accuracy of my friend's personal information supports the ideas from the Media Richness theory, which claims that there is less deception with lean media. Since Facebook is an asynchronous and recordable medium, people tend not to lie. However, the Social Distance theory cannot be supported. According to the theory, people will lie more in lean media, such as email and IM, than in rich media, like FtF. Though specifically for my friend's profile, I did not find the Social Distance theory to be true.
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http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/09/4-rock-paper-scissors-lie.html
http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/09/girl-who-cried-food-poisoning.html
1 comment:
Selina,
A very nice post and I enjoyed reading it. Your analysis of Facebook as a vessel of the Hyperpersonal Model’s selective self-presentation really caught my eye. The idea that when people view a profile, they mostly use assessment signals, leaving conventional signals more vulnerable to deception efforts was a great one. The one thing that left me wondering was your statement that when people lie on Facebook, they tend to do it in very small ways, to avoid detection. This is, of course, accurate for a less personal social network such as MySpace but I feel that because most of one’s friends on Facebook are one’s friends in real life, the chance to deceive digitally, even in small amounts, is nil. I feel that this risk of getting caught in a socially unacceptable lie (other than claiming to be “Married” of course) makes people much more honest on Facebook than they would be on MySpace or a dating website. Just the possibility of casual face-to-face contact minimizes our willingness to lie online.
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