QotW6: Friendster Profiles...
Friendster ...
Friendster, where you find; search old friends, classmates or anyone, connect; view profiles and grow your network and stay in touch; getting friend updates, share photos and videos (Friendster, 2007). These may sound like great reasons for you to sign up for a Friendster account. But how much truth will you put into these kinds of online social network accounts?
It depends on the purpose of setting up this kind of social network accounts and I should use Friendster as my case study. People set up Friendster primarily for three purposes. The first reason being, to maintain the contact with people that you know, for example, your workplace colleagues, classmates or even relatives. Secondly, to make more friends through Friendster by visiting their Friendster profiles. Lastly, to find their old friends, provided they have signed up with Friendster.
How much information do you intend to put into your Friendster profile? For my own personal Friendster account, I could say that the information that I have put up are brief descriptions of what I am truly am and what I am doing currently. The information that I put up are all real information of mine, as I feel, my friends, would really want to know how am I doing and likewise, I would in turn also want to know how they are doing without having to ask them.
According to Rosen (Rosen, 2005), in this age of the internet, we are increasingly forced to interact with strangers whom we will never meet face-to-face, and as a result, individuals find themselves in more and more situations where they feel pressure to reveal details of their personal lives without being able to gauge the audience’s reaction. Thus, this pressure pressurizes people to divulge personal and truthful information about them.
Nobody likes anyone who deceives people. Thus, imagine you putting false information of yourself on your Friendster profile, and your friend sees it and one day, and realizes that what ever you have put on Friendster is all a hoax. What will you friend see you from then on? Definitely, the impression of you in your friend will definitely change drastically. “Trust is built faster and maintained longer when people believe you are being real, not putting on a false front to cover up what’s really going on inside of you. When it comes to relationships, authenticity is what others say they want most from us and we make the most lasting and vivid impressions when people witness us being true to our beliefs, staying in alignment with who and what we really are” (Rosen, 2005).
Thus, people tend to divulge their real information about themselves because they would not want to be in the dilemma of deceiving others. I myself feel that there’s nothing to hide about my own self. One important thing when creating these kinds of Friendster profiles is knows what you want to let the whole world to know. For example, if you do not wish to tell people where is your workplace, then do not put in down. Keep it blank. Feel how your friends will feel when they find out that you are reading something that is so not true. Sometimes, trying to fake information is not as easy as what you think. You have to think hard on what you want to replace this real information with the fake information.
Authenticity refers to the psychology concept in which the individual derives gratification and positive emotions from excercising signature strengths (Wikipedia, 2007). Last but not the least, one tip that I would give to people when creating Friendster profiles is you divulge your personal information only if you are comfortable on letting others know, otherwise, leave it blank or use a metaphor. Authenticity of information increases trust and likewise, false information decreases trust.
References:
Friendster. (2007). Friendster – Home. Friendster, Inc. Retrieved March 10, 2007 from http://www.friendster.com/
Rosen, J. (2004). The Naked Crowd. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. (2007, 10 March). Authenticity (Philospohy). Retrieved March 10, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticity_%28philosophy%29
Friendster, where you find; search old friends, classmates or anyone, connect; view profiles and grow your network and stay in touch; getting friend updates, share photos and videos (Friendster, 2007). These may sound like great reasons for you to sign up for a Friendster account. But how much truth will you put into these kinds of online social network accounts?
It depends on the purpose of setting up this kind of social network accounts and I should use Friendster as my case study. People set up Friendster primarily for three purposes. The first reason being, to maintain the contact with people that you know, for example, your workplace colleagues, classmates or even relatives. Secondly, to make more friends through Friendster by visiting their Friendster profiles. Lastly, to find their old friends, provided they have signed up with Friendster.
How much information do you intend to put into your Friendster profile? For my own personal Friendster account, I could say that the information that I have put up are brief descriptions of what I am truly am and what I am doing currently. The information that I put up are all real information of mine, as I feel, my friends, would really want to know how am I doing and likewise, I would in turn also want to know how they are doing without having to ask them.
According to Rosen (Rosen, 2005), in this age of the internet, we are increasingly forced to interact with strangers whom we will never meet face-to-face, and as a result, individuals find themselves in more and more situations where they feel pressure to reveal details of their personal lives without being able to gauge the audience’s reaction. Thus, this pressure pressurizes people to divulge personal and truthful information about them.
Nobody likes anyone who deceives people. Thus, imagine you putting false information of yourself on your Friendster profile, and your friend sees it and one day, and realizes that what ever you have put on Friendster is all a hoax. What will you friend see you from then on? Definitely, the impression of you in your friend will definitely change drastically. “Trust is built faster and maintained longer when people believe you are being real, not putting on a false front to cover up what’s really going on inside of you. When it comes to relationships, authenticity is what others say they want most from us and we make the most lasting and vivid impressions when people witness us being true to our beliefs, staying in alignment with who and what we really are” (Rosen, 2005).
Thus, people tend to divulge their real information about themselves because they would not want to be in the dilemma of deceiving others. I myself feel that there’s nothing to hide about my own self. One important thing when creating these kinds of Friendster profiles is knows what you want to let the whole world to know. For example, if you do not wish to tell people where is your workplace, then do not put in down. Keep it blank. Feel how your friends will feel when they find out that you are reading something that is so not true. Sometimes, trying to fake information is not as easy as what you think. You have to think hard on what you want to replace this real information with the fake information.
Authenticity refers to the psychology concept in which the individual derives gratification and positive emotions from excercising signature strengths (Wikipedia, 2007). Last but not the least, one tip that I would give to people when creating Friendster profiles is you divulge your personal information only if you are comfortable on letting others know, otherwise, leave it blank or use a metaphor. Authenticity of information increases trust and likewise, false information decreases trust.
References:
Friendster. (2007). Friendster – Home. Friendster, Inc. Retrieved March 10, 2007 from http://www.friendster.com/
Rosen, J. (2004). The Naked Crowd. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. (2007, 10 March). Authenticity (Philospohy). Retrieved March 10, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authenticity_%28philosophy%29
Labels: COM125 Assignments
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