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January 2024
Milan Even
A recent Cornell psychology study reveals that perceptions of individuals on social media can significantly differ from how they view themselves. Analyzing Facebook status updates, the research uncovered notable disparities in how viewers assessed authors across various personality traits compared to the authors' self-perceptions. Viewers tended to rate Facebook users as having lower self-esteem and being more self-revealing than the users rated themselves. The study, titled "The Self Online: When Meaning-Making is Outsourced to the Cyber Audience," also found that posts containing multimedia elements, such as photos or videos, facilitated more accurate assessments than text-only posts.
The study sheds light on the dynamic process by which online audiences construct perceptions of individuals based on isolated fragments of shared information. Lead author Qi Wang, Joan K., and Irwin M. Jacobs Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cornell emphasize that the mismatch between self-perception and how others perceive us online could influence our ability to feel connected in the digital realm.
The research involved college students who provided self-ratings on personal characteristics and shared their recent Facebook posts. Two groups of undergraduate "viewers" evaluated these posts, with one group assessing text-only versions and the other multimedia versions. Notably, the study found that while both groups accurately assessed connectedness, multimedia posts led to more accurate personality assessments on average.
Wang suggests that the study's findings could assist developers in designing interfaces that allow users to express themselves more authentically. The potential misunderstanding of one's online identity might not directly harm users, but it could impact their ability to communicate effectively and build relationships. Wang concludes that a significant difference between how people view us online and our actual selves could potentially undermine our social life and well-being.
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