As one of my friends so eloquently put it… “it’s not Facebook stalking, it’s market research.” So this week, I did a little market research based on a friend of mine. For discretion’s sake, let’s call her Sally.
On first glance, it looks like Sally is dating Mike Posner. She went to his concert last Thursday night, and it was definitely the main topic of discussion on her status posts the week prior to the concert. What’s more, her profile picture was changed to her and him in a full-on embrace the day after the concert. A quote is also listed by Posner in her “information” section and has his “page” is listed as well. At the very least, I would definitely say she was friends with him prior to the concert.
It’s also very obvious Sally likes to have her fun. In the past week, she’s been tagged in many pictures while “boozing.” This may be questionable to the authorities, but Sally has listed her birthday on FB so no worries, she is indeed 21. Her current status, “F%#@&$! Nuts!” (posted on Saturday @ 7:47 am) also suggests she had a rather eventful Friday evening, which may have even trickled over to Saturday morning, as 7:47 is quite early for a Badger to be awake (unless she hasn’t gone to bed yet).
I would also speculate that Sally has many more male friends than female friends. Only one girl wrote on Sally’s wall in the past week (and tagged her in photos), while she had interaction with four males. This may not be too suggestive, but between the “friends you have in common” and the “friends” thumbnail pictures section, 7 males were previewed while only 2 females were.
Fitness is also a prominent activity in Sally’s life. She has several references to eating healthy and running – from Olympian quotes to comments in her “interests” section. On her main profile page, the section that says to “write something about yourself,” Sally wrote “26.2 on 5.30.10.” I Googled this phrase and although nothing exact came up, several marathons popped up, so I assume Sally is planning on running a marathon at the end of May.
Overall, I wouldn’t consider Sally’s profile to be extremely suggestive or revealing. The drinking and partying is obviously the largest concern, but if authorities and possible employers cannot access the information, it may not be too prevalent of an issue. Hopefully Sally has a limited profile that appears for users who are not her friends. However, as I know Sally personally, I happen know that the name she has listed is her first and middle name, not her first and last. So she may give possible searchers a run for their money on finding her anyway.
Bottom line – Sally seems like a girl who’s out to have fun. While she doesn't seem very concerned about what's on Facebook, she doesn't seem to be "over-revealed" either. Everything I discovered above I already knew in one way or the other, with the exception of the Mike Posner bit; she doesn't know him personally, she's simply his #1 fan.
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This review of "Sally's" facebook page seems eerily similar to what I imagine a review of my personal facebook page would sound like. It's weird that even though I am aware that all of my "facebook friends" can read my wall posts and stalk my pictures whenever they please, it would make me uncomfortable to find that someone was doing a project/review of my facebook page. If I was aware that my facebook was going to be under observation for several days, I definitely think I would feel the need to censor my facebook behavior. This makes me realize that since my facebooking behavior could technically be analyzed at any moment by anyone with the urge to "stalk and review" that I should be more cautious of my facebooking actions. I think that I find it ok to say some of the things I do on facebook and to keep certain pictures tagged of myself because it's just my "friends" who're able to observe my behavior. Instead, I think I should take into consideration how I would be viewed by a complete stranger who knows nothing about my lifestyle, personality, or sense of humor, and gauge my facebooking behavior from there. With that being said, it's hard to have the time and energy to go back and censor the last 4 years of my life...
ReplyDeleteAs an infrequent user of facebook, I am always surprised by the things people say and put on their facebook. I have my pictures and other information on limited settigns on my facebook. Because I prefer not to update my status or share my pictures, I'm always slightly surprised when my friends post their personal information on their status and walls. Of course, it's entertaining to to view all this, but this always makes me wonder if I'm looking at their walls, who could be looking at mine. I love the concept of facebook for keeping in touch with friends at different schools and those abroad, but their are times I question my privacy. I've heard employers can pay companies to see your information, which makes me nervous are they doing this for me. No matter how private I make my facebook or how many pictures I detagged, I'm always worried someone will see still be able to find the stuff I don't want them seeing.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how much you can assume about a person just by looking at their facebook. It's even more fascinating how accurate the assumptions were you made. It brings up the question how private are any of these social network sites and can you really ever be aware how much information a person can gather about you from them.
Everyday my friends are telling me about the "latest gossip" they found out about other people via facebook stalking. I'm not one for sitting on facebook, I usually go on to communicate with a friend I haven't seen in awhile, or post some pictures. After reading this post about "Sally" it sparked my interest to look at some of my friends profiles, who are daily (and some even hourly) facebook users.
ReplyDeleteFrom pictures, to statuses, to wall posts, if I did not personally know these people, I would have an extremely different impression of them. (I'm really hoping they have a private profile on facebook). These people have 900ish friends, and since I know these people, I know they do not personally know that many people.
I took a career class and facebook was the number one thing we talked about. I used to have a lot of pictures that I thought were just showing my college years. However, after that class I started going through and cleaning up my facebook, untagging pictures, changing privacy settings, etc.
I think facebook is great, but it is important to be aware of how you are being portrayed to not only your friends, but strangers and especially potential employers.
How Erica viewed her friend "Sally" is interesting. It got me thinking how weird it is that sometimes I'll meet someone, become Facebook friends with them and right away look at their profile before I get to know them.
ReplyDeleteBeing college students, heavy users of Facebook, we are allowed to glimpse at people's lives and make a judgement on them before we even establish a real relationship with them. It puts a whole new spin on first impressions. How you interact with someone when first making a friendship can be based on how you think they will be from their Facebook page.
While interests, music, status updates, etc. are supposed to be a fun social way to share yourself and stay connected to friends they also allow people we aren't close with to judge us before they know us. I myself, though it is slightly embarrassing and naive, can think of times I became friends with someone after meeting them once or twice and from looking at their Facebook and who their friends were thought they would be a certain way. When in reality when I got to know them better I found they were actually quite different than their Facebook made them out to be.
I also think Facebook is great, but this will definitely give me a different perspective on how I will take in information posted to friends' profiles and what I put on mine.
Going along with what Alex said, it is interesting to think about what people did prior to facebook. Companies surely did not have as much dirt to dig up on their potential employers. Moreover, how did students spend there time? People spend hours on facebook- for me, it is sort of an automatic tendency whenever I open up my web browser, I press the letter F and facebook automatically comes up, I don’t even think about it.
ReplyDeleteCurrently sitting at the Food Court in University Square, so many people around me are on there computers- which means they are more than likely on Facebook. Facebook has become a huge part of life for college students- it is more than just a way to communicate and show pictures, it is a community that is constantly expanding. Now you can even search for job openings on the “marketplace”.
On another note, it is interesting how much "stalking" people are comfortable doing on a screen, when no one can see the dirt they are digging up. However, half of these people you probably do not know, or would not necessarily talk to in a face-to-face social situation.