Who is Jeff Hancock? Using a Facebook profile as my guide, I utilized the available valid cues to try to attain the Brunswikian epitome of functional achievement. Recently in a passing conversation earlier this week, someone mentioned only the naïve keep open Facebook profiles. At the time I thought of my own profile and whole heartedly agreed, who would want strangers browsing their pictures and learning the names of their friends? But alas, CMC ninja Jeff Hancock has his profile wide open. Is there something that sets apart users who think their profile is too revealing to show? Or is Professor Hancock some kind of Facebook superhero; unable to be embarrassed by a drunken wall post, unstalkable, and perfectly tagged in all of his photogenic-only photos?
Self-directed identity claims are abundant on his profile. Professor Hancock’s current profile picture, while it does give the impression of a reflective person, probably does not mean nearly as much to viewers of his profile than to Professor Hancock himself. Under his favorite quotes he lists “woodworthian pearls,” another obscure reference that means very little to his profile viewers. A Google search even returns zero results which basically guarantees that the statement has never been said, heard, or though outside of Jeff’s profile. Being a member of the group “Jeffs rule Cornell” can probably be considered a self directed identity claim as well. Other directed identity claims are also plentiful. Besides the fact that we eerily have the same birthday, Professor Hancock shows his relationship status as married (disappointing, I know). His detailed descriptions of his favorite music, movies, and books are also statements to others about how he would like to be regarded (apparently he and Missy Elliott are on a first name basis). Interior behavioral residue is present in the form of his newsfeed history. There isn’t much there for this category, apparently Professor Hancock does not post on your wall no matter how ridiculous your post was “Professor Hancock, you could have put my profile up on the big screen and let all the ladies see my nice body...” Exterior behavioral residue in the form of pictures shows Jeff consistently surrounded by good looking happy people which leads to context effects and hopefully the BIRG-y assimilation effect. With only 19 photos, Professor Hancock is nowhere near the hundreds found on other Facebook pages. My guess is that a lower relative amount of behavioral residue would promote users to keep their Facebook accounts open.
When applying the Big Five personality traits, and ignoring the glaring Facebook plugin that Professor Hancock added to his profile that describes his traits, I would say that he has a high degree of openness (due to his interests in music/movies/books), and agreeableness (due to his pictures, and small tidbits of humor like being interested in monkeys). Extraversion seems high based on his willingness to share his profile. Conscientiousness and Neuroticism are harder to judge based solely on a Facebook profile but seem lower. My opinion of his personality traits do not quite match up with his self reported scores which suggests that a Facebook profile does not have complete functional achievement.
http://cornell.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=370584&op=1&view=all&subj=403080&id=632517951&ref=mf
8 comments:
Ha-ha, Hey Austin, Great Post. However, I feel like confessing your love to Professor Hancock may make the next couple of classes slightly more awkward. You did a really good job discussing all of the identity claims (self/other directed) and behavioral residues (external/internal) evident on the Professor’s Facebook. I think there is a definite relationship between the number of photos tagged and the unlimited access the public has to the profile. If Jeff had more restricted Facebook settings, he probably would have more pics of him partying and “raging” (partying really hard for the laymen). You made a comment about the big five personality traits. However, we did learn that Openness and Conscientious were supposedly easier to detect in CMC compared to other three; Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness. I guess the research on these big five and their detection in CMC may not entirely apply to Facebook and the new and different aspects it has brought to CMC
Austin, I loved your post; it was very entertaining. I think that Prof. Hancock is pretty much obligated to put your post up on the “big screen” next Tuesday just because he is the subject of your observation (admiration?).
You did a great job going over each of the identity claims and behavioral residues. It looks like Prof. Hancock tried to establish a strong, unique identity through both his self- and other-directed identity claims on his profile. I thought it was interesting that you reported that Prof. Hancock did not have much interior behavioral residue on Facebook; because of his profession, I assumed that he would use Facebook often. I also liked how you tied in Prof. Hancock’s exterior behavioral residue with BIRG. By detagging unflattering photos, one can maintain a clean, respectable identity on Facebook. However, with fewer photos, one has to rely on fewer cues to form an impression. Since Prof. Hancock had so few photos on his profile, it was probably very easy to fall into the trap of assuming things about his personality. I thought that you brought up a good point of noting that the few cues on Facebook were not enough to contribute to an accurate impression of his personality.
Great post, Austin. I had never bothered to look at Jeff Hancock's Faceboo profile until i read your blog. You did a great job of describing your subject's profile and the different behavioral residues and identity claims. I, too, noticed his membership in "Jeffs Rule Cornell" and that it is a self-directed identity claim. His photos are definitely good examples of external behavioral residue. His photos are also interesting to me because they seem to illustrate his personality well. He looks happy and sociable and extraverted in every single one of them. Whether this is the product of some well executed un-tagging, or he is just always smiling, is up for debate. Professor Hancock certainly has the ability to make his profile more mysterious (by making it less available to the Facebook community, for example), but it is clear that his his openness scores are pretty high. You definitely deserve to get your profile shown on the big screen tomorrow.
Hey Austin,
This post really stood out. The title was amazing and the content just a great. I especially enjoyed the small comments that you have after a few of the detailed analysis of Professor Hancock's profile. The way that you identified each of the Brunswikian factors was clear and very agreeable. I for one have yet to visit visit Professor Hancock's Facebook profile, but do you think it is at all possible that he specifically tailored his Facebook profile for assignments such as these? Deceptions buried within the profile perhaps? I mean, he IS well educated in impression formations. :)
Nice...
This is probably the best post on Green blog this year! I can’t believe you were the only one who thought to analyze Professor Hancock. Your post was very witty. While I have looked at Professor Hancock’s profile before, I had never analyzed it in so much depth. I went back to look at it again after reading some of the things that you pointed out. I think the “woodworthian pearls” he was referring to are probably said by his friend and first wall post, Amy Woodworth. (Wow, look at me being a Facebook stalker.) I think Matt is probably right when he said that Professor Hancock censors the pictures that get tagged of him. Leaving his profile open to the entire Cornell community has the benefit of making him seem really accessible, but it could also get him in trouble if one of the thousands of students looking at it saw something problematic on it.
Wow this post really stood out not just because of its title. It was an awesome idea to analyze Prof. Hancocks facebook profile for this assignment. You did a really good job of describing the Brunswikian factors and relating them to his profile. I have never checked out his profile but I feel obligated now. Good job
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