4: RIP John Smith?

I interviewed my friend, who will go by the pseudonym of Audrey, about her Facebook profile. I’ve known her for quite a while and believe I would be fairly able to tell if she was lying to me. Audrey’s average accuracy rating (on a scale of 1 to 5) was around 4.

Audrey is a fairly relaxed individual, and her Facebook profile illustrates these characteristics quite accurately. For someone who does not know Audrey very well, one might mistake the conciseness of her profile for a lack of interest in Facebook, but because I know her well, I can argue the exact opposite. Just about every aspect of one’s Facebook profile is a Conventional Signal because filling out a text profile is so easy. The closest we get to assessment symbols on Facebook is probably Profile Pictures and Photo Albums.

Audrey only lists three Interests in her Facebook profile: green tea, avocado, and beef. She rated the accuracy of this section of her profile as 5, even though she clearly is interested in more than just those three things. One who doesn’t know better may take this piece of Self Presentation to mean that she really enjoys food and drink. Although this is quite true, the overall impression is deceptive because I know very well that she is interested in more than just food consumption.

Audrey’s Favorite Quotes have the potential to be quite deceptive. One quotation is from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. This author shows up again in a Note Audrey posted on her profile, which consists of a longer excerpt from this book. Audrey rated the accuracy of her Favorite Quotes and Notes sections as 5s, but surely there is some Selective Self-Presentation at work here. She might be trying to emphasize intellect. Given that her profile does not say that much about her, the things she chooses to put on display could potentially be Over-Attributed, due to lack of available cues.

Audrey’s Group affiliation section is the only part of her Profile that she admitted as deceptive. Giving her groups an accuracy rating of 3, she confessed that she often joins groups out of guilt, such as philanthropic ones, or groups dedicated to the memory of someone who died. Audrey blames the Facebook News Feed feature for her lack of action in portraying herself accurately here. She would not like to be caught on another person’s News Feed as part of a story reading “Audrey Gold has left the group RIP John Smith,” even though she never knew John Smith! Audrey would not like the Facebook community to think that she is insensitive, so to her, a little deception in the form of a false Social Association is fine with her.

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