Assignment 4, Option 2: Whoops

For this assignment, I chose to break down the anatomy of the Facebook profile, and to analyze my friends’ view of her own. I originally submitted this assignment Tuesday morning, but when I returned to the blog to begin commenting, I couldn’t find mine anywhere, so apparently I never actually posted it.

A typical Facebook page has many different aspects that can tell you a lot about a person - assuming they choose to utilize all the features and are honest with their responses. The first, and usually the most ‘important’ part of a person’s profile (at least in terms of interpersonal communication) is the profile picture. It is the starting point of anyone’s profile, and can convey a lot about the person. The profile picture, along with all the other photos of a person in their profile, is probably the largest example of selective self-presentation on Facebook. Next to the profile picture and directly under the user’s name, is the Status. This is similar to an away message on an instant messaging program, as it gives the person a chance to let their friends know what they are doing. While sometimes useful, it is often obsolete, as it is time sensitive, and is typically not accurate unless the user is of the rare breed that updates it regularly. The next major facet of the profile is the “basic” information: Networks, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Relationship Status, Looking For, Birthday, and Religious Views. This section of the Facebook profile is probably the most accurate and truthful part of the entire profile. Most people don’t lie about these basic characteristics of themselves, aside from the ever-popular “I’m married to my best friend” joke. Scanning down the page, the next thing you’ll find is the Mini-Feed. It’s impossible to lie in this section, as it is Facebook controlled content, and it simply displays what you have actually done. It is possible however, to selectively self-present here, as the user can “X” out certain things they have done so that their actions aren’t displayed. Contact Info is the next part of the Facebook profile. Many people choose not to display all of their contact info. Most people will simply show the e-mail address they registered with (it is mandatory to display this) and possibly their AIM screen name or phone number. Occasionally an overzealous user will display their address and phone number for everyone to see, but this typically isn’t a great idea. Directly under Contact Info is Personal Info. This is where you will most likely learn the most about the user, as they can display their favorite interests, music, TV shows, movies, books, quotes, and where they can tell you all “About Me”. It seems like there is a great deal of variation as to the amount of information displayed in this section. Some users will list every single thing they are a fan of, as well as give you a six paragraph autobiography to boot. Others will simply list one or two interests without bothering to use punctuation; it basically depends on the personality of the person. Overall the Facebook profile is manipulated a lot by users to display themselves as favorably as possible, thus the most prevalent theory at work on Facebook is the selective self-presentation theory.

To test this theory and to see if it was an accurate attribution, I questioned one of my friends about her Facebook profile and had her rank the accuracy of her statements. Her rankings of each part of her profile coincided with my original thoughts of her page. For her profile picture she stated that it was a 5, saying that “It’s actually me, so it has to be accurate.” This is obviously true, and while she didn’t quite realize that there are varying degrees of honesty when it comes to self-presentation, I would say the picture is very accurate as to her looks and personality. As for her status which was “Alex is finally sleeping”, she ranked it a 1, because as she put it “I’m obviously not sleeping right now.” This is a prime example of how inaccurate the status can be, as things can change so quickly and a lot of users don’t consistently update it. My friend also decided to not show anything in her Mini-Feed, selectively choosing not to make her recent activity public. She ranked all of her Basic Info a 5, except for her Relationship Status. She had this ranked at 1, because she is one of the users who is “married to” a female friend. Her ranks of 5 for the rest of the basics confirm that she was telling the truth, as most people seem to do in this section. For Contact Info she ranked her honesty as a 5, which is true. She shared her e-mail address, AIM screen name and cell phone number, which were all accurate. For Personal Info, she ranked her Interests at 4, and I would have to agree, as she listed some things, but wasn’t exactly too detailed, and I’m sure she’s interested in more than she shares. As for Music, she ranked this a 3. She only had two music groups listed, and she attributes the 3 to the fact that she “left a lot out because I don’t like them as much.” This exemplifies selective self-presentation; while I can confirm that she is in fact a big fan of the two groups she chose to list, she decided that the others were less important and thus didn’t deserve to be listed. She ranked her TV favorites as a 4, but then went on to say “that’s basically it, and I’m embarrassed by the others I like.” This strongly suggests selective self-presentation theory, as she has other favorites, but decided that they aren’t part of how she wants to convey herself to others. She only listed one Movie favorite, ranking the category’s accuracy a 5. I can attest that she does enjoy other movies, but she obviously deduced that they play a less important role in her personality and taste. She also might feel that listing one movie that she is extremely fond of makes a more powerful statement than listing 20 that she simply enjoyed. As for her Favorite Books, her profile says “I don’t like to read.” She marked this a 3. I attribute that middling ranking to the fact that she does enjoy some books such as the Harry Potter series, but the short list of books she enjoys is outweighed by her overall “dislike of reading”. As for Favorite Quotes, Alex has “I am the worst ever at remembering quotes.” She ranked this response as a 5, and I would have to agree that she is awful at remembering them, and when she attempts to recall one it is always way off. In her About Me section, Alex is a little more dishonest, but not in a harmful or bad way. She simply lists: “I’m Alex. I hate Facebook.” While she certainly is Alex, I doubt she hates Facebook, as she keeps an updated profile and visits the site frequently. She said the accuracy was a 2, and I would have to agree.

So once again, I feel the major theory at play on Facebook is the Selective Self-Presentation Theory. Most people are not downright dishonest; they are simply picking and choosing what truths they want to allow others to know about them.

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3: Media Selection. I'll be Esther another time.

I enjoy posing as an 80 year old woman with Alzheimer’s as much as the next guy, but for this assignment I have decided to describe two instances of media selection I have recently engaged in. My decisions for both communications tasks were largely based on media richness theory, as you will see.

Yesterday I needed advice about selling some of my photographs. I have some pictures that a newspaper is interested in buying, but I have no idea about how much they are worth, and how to go about the sale. I did a little investigating on the internet and was able to find a well written blog by a professional photographer. He deals with this type of stuff all the time, so I decided to contact him to see if he had anything helpful to tell me. On his website there were two channels with which to contact him. One was telephone and the other was e-mail. I decided that for this situation, my best bet would be e-mail, because it was the richest medium for this communication task. In an e-mail I don’t have a certain amount of time to convey my ideas and thoughts, I am able to think about what I want to ask and word my questions in a coherent and intelligent way. Not to say that this isn’t possible over the phone, but I feel that it’s easier to get better answers when I have time to write the questions down, while at the same time giving the recipient more time to think of answers without putting them on the spot. Another reason this medium was right for my task is that I didn’t have 20 minutes to devote to a phone conversation; I was in between classes, and I had about 5 or 10 minutes to sit down and type. The final reason that e-mail was the optimal medium for my task is that I am now able to go back and read the response as many times as I want. If I forget something that the photographer said, I can open the e-mail again to refresh my memory. On the phone I would basically have one shot at getting the advice, because words are usually lost the moment they are spoken. The photographer ended up giving me great advice by writing a thorough and detailed reply that will be very helpful to me.

Another instance of media selection goes back a couple of weeks. I had spoken to a prospective employer about the possibly of getting a job at their place of business. They e-mailed me back saying that there were two positions available, and I could just send my resume to them by e-mail. This however was not how I chose to approach the task. I decided to hand deliver my resume, rather than sending it electronically. I made this choice because I wanted to make face to face contact with the person who was deciding whether or not to hire me. If I solely used e-mail for this task, my communication with the employer would be vague and ambiguous. Speaking with the employer in person allowed me to personalize the experience by giving and receiving cues and making positive impressions that simply cannot be made just through e-mail. I was able to get instant feedback from the employer, and in the end I got the job.

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Music To My Ears? Assignment #2

As a musician, whenever I need some advice or troubleshooting with a problem I’m having, I consult the plethora of forums that are available on the web. Probably the most useful is FutureProducers.com. On this site there are the typical forums with threads where users can post questions, answers, comments or anything else they feel like contributing. There is also an option to send somebody a private message, or ‘PM’; this is the feature that I chose to utilize for this assignment.

I am one half of the local hip-hop group TynovA & Kwest. After completing our first full-length album, we chose to invest in a new microphone. The mic we had before was decent and got the job done, but we decided to upgrade. I had recently been having a little trouble configuring the new mic’s settings to our liking, so I decided I should navigate the FutureProducers forum in search of answers. This turned out to be the perfect chance to do my research for this assignment, while possibly solving my problem at the same time.

I decided to search the forum looking for another person who had used the same microphone, and my quest turned out to be successful. This user had talked about the microphone in the past, so I figured he might be able to help me. I had never spoken to him before, but his user name and location gave something away to me; I realized I knew who this person was - to a certain extent. In the past I had heard some material from a relatively well known hip-hop group from Milwaukee. Their music sounded really good, and I deduced that this user happened to be a member of said group. I never disclosed to him that I was aware of this, thus insuring that he wouldn’t alter his personality or responses.

When I first initiated the conversation, I told him of my dilemma and asked if he had any advice or if he could help in any way. His response was thorough and extremely helpful. He was courteous and polite and relayed his past experiences to me. He also gave me tips on how to maximize the microphone’s performance, going into great detail about some of the technical points. He was very open and very helpful. I probably could have ended the conversation there, but I decided to ask him some more advice. I picked his brain about the mastering process and we talked a little bit about our experiences with making our first albums. Overall he was extremely thorough and provided me with a abundance of information, while asking nothing in return.

I would categorize the interaction that took place under the Social Identity Deindividuation Theory. While my ‘friend’ and I seemed to get along very well and had a lot in common, this could easily have been the result of having minimal cues. The musical context of our discussion is what most likely attracted his interest to help me and with little other information about me, led him to go in-depth and to be very helpful. We met through this common interest, and with no negative cues to be received, we developed a possibly exaggerated sense of similarity.

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"OMG Get Rid Of The News Feed!!!!"

Hi, my name is Tyler Armstrong, and I'm a junior transfer student. I was born and raised in Ithaca, leaving only for 2 years to attend junior college in Buffalo. My major is communications, and I hope to pursue a career in the mass media field, more specifically sports broadcasting.

I am willing to admit that I am a Facebook addict; not only do I find it entertaining, but who doesn't love getting a new wall post or friend request from that good looking girl you just met on Saturday night? As a fan of the infamous social networking site, I find it alarming that some people feel such a substantial sense of attachment and ownership towards it. Anytime a change is made or a new feature added, thousands and thousands of users are uproarious in protest. The first example that comes to mind is the News Feed. When Facebook first introduced it I was actually a fan. I didn't mind allowing my friends to see the things I had done to my profile, because I figured that was the point of Facebook; to keep your friends and family updated on your life. Not 12 hours had passed since the addition however, when seemingly hundreds of groups formed boycotting the new feature, with users threatening to delete their accounts if things weren't restored to how they "used to be." Little did these people know however, that the mob mentality they were feeding into was simply fueling the money machine that is Facebook.

As is the case with most media enterprises, any publicity is good publicity. Blogs and websites all over the Internet picked up on the frenzy that News Feed (and its sidekick mini feed) had created, and began reporting on it and adding their two cents to the debate. The extra attention that Facebook was garnering only added to the popularity of the site, as people who had never used the site in the past - whether uninterested or unaware - became intrigued or curious, causing a Facebook fever pitch. The increased awareness of the site brought more possibilities for the Mark Zuckerberg camp. With the demand for his product at an all time high, he opened the site to any and all users. This created an even larger outcry, as college students everywhere felt "betrayed" and no longer "elite." What many people were forgetting however, is that Facebook is a business. With more users, comes more money. Ad revenue and potential sale values have simply skyrocketed, and Facebook is as popular as ever.

I think that it's only natural for many users to feel an attachment to the site, as countless hours are spent surfing it. I feel it's important however for many members to realize that Facebook is a business first, and a service second. We ourselves pay no money to use the site (unless buying a 1.00 gift *coughripoffcough*), rightfully leaving us with limited-to-no say in its business operations. The number of users has increased exponentially since the introduction of the News Feed, so while some may have deleted their accounts in protest, their decision was pointless (and I'm willing to bet they re-activated within days).

Facebook is a conglomerate of almost every aspect of the internet. It provides a Search engine to navigate through a sea of resources and possibilities, it has its own e-mail feature (Messages), and the Groups and Wall entities allow for both asynchronous and synchronous discussions. The new Applications programs act somewhat as MUDs and metaworlds, sometimes adding visual effects, video, music, sounds and games to users' profiles.

Facebook is an internet giant and somewhat of an anomaly. It encompasses so many different areas of communication, it is an entity unto itself.

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