another thought on signal in Facebook
Sunday, September 20, 2009 by Anonymous
In last blog entry, I made an observation on how Facebook users are in fact less likely to engage in anonymous, fake identity play than they have long been presumed to. Facebook, is in fact a media more effective for strategic self-presentation than faking identities. It activates individual’s more elaborate self-description and the symbolic construction of themselves in building up their online profile. Applications and features of facebook that allowing individual to display ‘label’ on their profile, display their taste in music and film, join groups and even just publish their IQ test result come in handy for individual to present their identities.
However, these signals are more effective in reinforcing and contributing to users perception of their contacts who they already know in real life. They are less effective in ‘creating’ users’ knowledge and perception of the identities of those contacts whom they don’t know in real life. Just to think of how often we reject a stranger’s ‘be friend’ invitation and how often we are not engaging in any interaction with those weak tie and those ‘stranger’ online friend, we can get some insights that not only there is difference in reliability in different type of signal. Who send the signal is also matter to their reliability in the social networking site.
However, these signals are more effective in reinforcing and contributing to users perception of their contacts who they already know in real life. They are less effective in ‘creating’ users’ knowledge and perception of the identities of those contacts whom they don’t know in real life. Just to think of how often we reject a stranger’s ‘be friend’ invitation and how often we are not engaging in any interaction with those weak tie and those ‘stranger’ online friend, we can get some insights that not only there is difference in reliability in different type of signal. Who send the signal is also matter to their reliability in the social networking site.