According to Catalina's study of dating profiles, people tend to use small, subtle deceptions in an effort to present a more ideal online self to potential partners. We use these deceptions in an effort to garner more interest in ourselves. However, the deceptions are typically subtle enough so that others won't be let down or disappointed when they meet us face to face. This conclusion makes a lot of sense in the context of human interaction and is probably what most us would intuitively expect from singles. However, how does this theory hold up when we examine people with long term boyfriends and girlfriends?
The first person I chose to examine for my post had a long term boyfriend. After I had her rate the accuracy of each element of her (relatively minimalistic) profile, I was left with a very boring "all 5s"-meaning an entirely accurate profile. Upon further validating the information, I was once again left with the very boring and wholly accurate "all 5s."
I then chose to examine two other individuals- both of which had long term significant others. Interestingly enough the same thing happened. All three people had very lean, very accurate (and kind of boring from a research perspective) profiles. No subtle lies, no deceptions, and almost no subjective information were present. So why is that Catalina's theory seems to not ring true in these cases? Can we not port her findings from dating sites to and apply them to facebook?
My theory is that Catalina's theory works very well for people who are trying to attract significant others- especially those who are trying to attract others using online means. For this reason, porting Catalina's theory from a dating site to Facebook will deaden some of the effects as Facebook isn't used exclusively to attract people we have never met. Furthermore, if you examine someone who is in a relationship and therefore no longer "on the market" it's very doubtful that you will see any of the effects Catalina found. From my (largely anecdotal) experience, people who are in relationships have very lean and very accurate profiles. This is, perhaps, because they aren't trying to attract someone new.
I think this presents an excellent opportunity for research in the field of online impression management. How is digital deception affected by relationship status?
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4 comments:
Hi Nick. I really enjoyed your post because I think studying profiles of "taken" facebookers is an interesting take on the experiement. I think you make a great point in contrasting facebook with Catalina's study, because, it is true that facebook is not used solely to attract new people, and it is therefore less likely for those of us who are taken to add subtle deceptions to our profiles in order to attract potential partners. However, while facebook isn't necessarily just about meeting new people to date, this doesn't mean that you don't think people are looking at your profile, even if they're just potential friends. You still want to present yourself in a certain way, so while you may not lie or your choices may not be geared towards attracting a partner, you still participate in selective-self presentation by choosing to include some things in your profile, and exclude others. But I agree with you that it does to seem to be at a much lower level if someone is taken, and I also agree with you that often facebook profiles of people in serious relationships tend to be shorter than others because there is less of a need to impress people. In fact, after reading your post I looked at my own profile (I've been dating someone for over 4 years) and I noticed that while my profile is short, it has a good amount of not-so subtle lies, in fact, most elements of my profile aren't meant to be truthful as much as they're meant to be a joke. I think it would be very interesting indeed to look into this further and study trends like these in the facebook profiles of people who aren't looking for a potential partner.
Hi Nick! I really enjoyed reading your post. The effect of relationship status on a person’s tendency to deceive on their profile is extremely interesting and thought provoking. I never really thought how the profiles of my friends who were in relationships differed from the profiles of my single friends. While it may be true that facebook isn’t used as a tool to attract people, it doesn’t mean that the person doesn’t care about their appearance. Just because a person is in a relationship, doesn’t mean that they don’t want others to see them as attractive. While I agree with you that on the whole people who are in relationships tend to have shorter profiles, I don’t think its always true. I think has to do more with a person’s preferences, some people are more willing to divulge personal details while others are not. I am in a long term relationship, however even before my relationship, my Facebook profile was not very detailed.
Nick, great post! I like this way of thinking and I would say that I agree with this just through my own experience. I think it is a good question to pose as well. I think that if one were to view a single person's profile it might be a little less accurate than a person who is "in a relationship" primarily because the person "in a relationship" isn't looking as you said. But, it might be interesting to find out about some of the people who might just be discouraged about their relationship status and not include any information at all or the people who say they are just looking for “friendship” when they are probably looking for more ( I find this is the case for some people who feel awkward about using Facebook as a “dating” device) Also, it might be a good way to find out who is secure with their relationship. Could we make a correlation between someone’s relationship and the accuracy of their profile, suggesting that less accuracy is related to a less committed relationship? Anyways, good descriptive, explanatory writing and a great research proposition!
Nick, I really enjoyed reading your post. I had not really thought about this "phenomenon", but it seems like there could be something to it. I do notice that all my friends in a relationship have their profile picture as a picture of the person and his girlfriend. Yet I don't think that just being in a relationship changes your entire outlook to online presentation. While you may not seem as desperate to seem attractive to the opposite sex, you still want to appear tough and cool (to a certain degree of course) to people of your own sex. In addition, do you think people change their Facebook profiles once they break up with their boyfriend or girlfriend? I would think you would think this based on your comments. It would be interesting to look and see if this does occur, and to what extent. Changing your Facebook profile significantly can be quite a big deal to some people, so observing Facebook behavior right after a recently ended relationship could be beneficial.
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