A Social Media Platform, Essay Example

Internet was predicted to revolutionize information sharing and communication and the technology has lived up to its expectations. Arguably no other internet technology has made as much impact as social media over the last decade and within social media, Facebook has emerged as the largest player. If Facebook were a country, with over a billion members it will be one of the three largest countries in the world by population. As more and more people are connected to the internet, especially in emerging economies, it will not be surprising if Facebook’s user base surpasses the population of India and China. As we spend more time on Facebook, we realize over time one’s profile is a good window into his/her personality.

The first profile I chose is someone who became my acquaintance because she is married to one of my good friends. For the purpose of this report, I may call her Mandy. As I go through Mandy’s profile, almost all of her posts are related to her. There are pictures of her with friends, pictures of her dogs, food, and the items she has bought recently. She also posts questions from time to time that are meant to invite others to comment on her, mostly flattering. She is going to grad school so many posts are about her studying, writing long reports, and getting good scores on assignments and tests. She also posts often about the items she has received from her husband which in this case is my good friend. I never thought about this before but this assignment suddenly made me wonder whether she has ever shared a news article about current affairs or even a social issue like many people on Facebook do but I didn’t find a single post.

I maintain a sense of respect towards her out of respect for my good friend but if I were a stranger who accidentally came across Mandy’s profile, the primary message I would get from the profile is that I have a wonderful life and I am a hardworking and an ambitious person. I find many posts in which she describes how much reading she has to do or how she has scored an A in the test. Similarly, she sometimes posts quotations from famous people about the virtue of not giving up. Many posts are about the items she has bought or have received as gifts from her husband or friends. I think there may be several reasons why Mandy presents herself the way she does. First of all, she has friends who also make similar posts as she is often tagged in them, thus, it may be her way of competing with others. Another reason may be that many of our mutual friends are college graduates and doing nice jobs, thus, she wants to be perceived as competitive and a high-achiever.

Mandy’s Facebook profile sends quite a different message from the impression I had developed of her through face-to-face interactions. I admit Mandy has always treated me with respect and I didn’t find her to be too much social. I felt she has a close circle of friends and she doesn’t openly discuss her personal life with everyone since our conversations would be mostly casual. Thus, her Facebook activity does come as a surprise and depicts a very different picture of what I had developed through face-to-face interactions. Her Facebook friends outnumber mine by about 50 percent, thus, her profile is visible to quite a huge audience.

The second profile I chose for this report is a friend whom I met at a campus event. I have known him for about a year and would refer to him as Dave. I do not consider myself a very religious person but Dave could not have been more different as he is not only an Evangelical Christian but is also active in a Christian Missionary. Even if one doesn’t know anything about Dave, a brief visit to his Facebook profile will reveal the extent of his religiosity. As I browse through the profile, almost every post if related to his faith. He also uses his Facebook profile to promote his blog, often using headlines that would make the viewers curious. Similarly, he also posts about campus ministry events as well as his missionary visits to Africa and Jerusalem.

It is apparent from Dave’s profile that the only thing he want his profile viewers to know is that his faith is extremely important to him and he sees himself as the preacher of his faith. His blog is always about a commentary on a specific verse in Bible and he makes at least three posts every week. Similarly, he is active in campus ministry and has been on missionary trips whose pictures can be seen through his profile.

Dave presents himself as a devoted Christian because he is convinced this is the purpose of life. His messages often imply he expects the whole world to embrace Christianity one day and he has even posted commentary about the second coming of Jesus and what can be done to speed up Jesus’ arrival. When I meet Dave occasionally, he almost always talks about his faith and what he is up to regarding his preaching activities, thus, Dave’s Facebook profile portrays him exactly as I would have expected. In fact, Dave was late to Facebook as compared to other people I know and he seems to have joined Facebook basically to connect with fellow students who share his devotion to faith. Dave’s Facebook profile is used for both preaching as well as promoting campus ministry activities.

The third profile I chose for this report is a friend I would refer to as Ron. Ron is different from Mandy and Dave in the sense that he rarely posts about himself but, nonetheless, his posts are as common as the other two if not more. Ron primarily posts links to news articles, videos, and pictures related to his interests such as politics and sports. In fact, I have learnt more about Ron through his Facebook profile than face-to-face interaction. I know Ron through a course we took together last year. Ron links to political news and articles tend to favor Republican views and similarly, most of his sports links are about NFL. Many of his news articles and commentaries come from Fox News. Ron’s profile also shows he is originally from Texas.

I believe Ron wants to let his friends know what his interests are and views are and hopefully also connect with those who share his views. Ron probably also seeks discussion because his posts are sometimes his opinions on an ongoing issue. For example, I remember coming across his personal commentaries on a wide range of issues including immigration reform, 2012 President Elections, tax debate, gun debate, and abortion.

Ron presents himself this way because he wants to be heard. He is the kind of person who often has strong opinions on different issues and Facebook provides him with a wide audience. He probably also uses Facebook to connect with people with similar views. When I meet Ron, he mostly talks about football and I can understand why he avoids politics debate in face-to-face interactions unless he knows the other person has same views because politics can be a sensitive topic.

Facebook profiles can help us understand a lot about other people and how they want to be perceived. Facebook is also a proof of the fact that almost everyone enjoys sharing some aspects of his/her with others. These profiles have also taught me that people can be quite different in person as compared to their online lives. In some ways, internet encourages people to open up because they do not fear being judged or embarrassed. But one should be careful on Facebook because it is a common knowledge now that Facebook posts can have serious consequences in both personal and professional matters.