Sunday 13 March 2011

(un)true display of character.

Status update: Patrick Ryan is…..pretending to be something he’s not. Let’s be brutally honest, we all are. Facebook isn’t about showing who we are; it’s about showing people how we wish to be perceived.

Pearson (2009) suggests that Facebook users are similar to actors in a performance. I believe over-actors is a better term. The ability to un-tag and crop photos allows the Facebook user/director/puppet-master to control how they appear to the wider public physically, but this is merely scratching the surface of the plastic personality problem that appears on the popular social networking website.

Status updates, check-ins, comments and events are entirely user-driven, leaving them in control of what they are doing and with the ability to tweak their life and opinions to enhance their reputation and social status.

I’m not going to lie, I love Facebook and what you can do with it. I carefully select and crop profile pics, post links that garner attention and update my status with the sole intention of gaining likes, but to take one’s online personality as truth is almost certain to be the wrong decision.

Next time you see a status update fishing for questions and help after a rough day, pick up the phone or meet them somewhere for a coffee, because it is our imperfections that make us different to each other.


Reference List

Facebook 2011. Accessed 11 March 2011 at www.facebook.com

Pearson, Erika. 2009. "All the World Wide Web's a stage: the Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks" in First Monday, Volume 14, Number 3. Accessed March 14, 2011. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?content_id=_3612480_1&displayName=Week+2+Readings&course_id=_74007_1&navItem=content&href=http%3A%2F%2Ffirstmonday.org%2Fhtbin%2Fcgiwrap%2Fbin%2Fojs%2Findex.php%2Ffm%2Farticle%2Fview%2F2162%2F2127. 

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