Are you really 'you' on facebook?

I've been called many things by many people.  I have been called charmingly charismatic by my parents, an extreme extrovert by my friends, and downright annoying by my little brother.  Strangers however, would classify me as shy, silent, and the kind of person who always appears to be lost in thought.  I'm usually just trying to be respectful, especially in front of people I don't know.  I don't like to be extremely outgoing in front of some people until I get to know them, because let's be honest, if I were to start shouting Denzel Washington's monologue from the movie Training Day like I often do, trust me, you'd be a little frightened.

Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris in Training Day

I think people act the most like themselves when they are in front of people they know.  Everyone has that silly inside joke or that little prank you would pull on the occasional friend.  Those are some of the luxuries of having friends.  You get to surround yourself full of people who understand the crazy or ludicrous things you have to say, instead of people you don't know who would just be staring down the street, waiting for the white ambulance full of men in white coats and a straight jacket to take you to some place for the criminally insane.

This leads me to my question.  If you are your genuine self in front of people you are comfortable with, are you your genuine self on a social networking site, like Facebook or Google+?  In an article published on the New York Times daily blog,  writer Tara Parker-Pope asks the same question.  Do people's Facebook profiles really match their persona, or is it an online mask, a way to hide behind an untouchable curtain, where they can act as tough or be as rude as they want to be?  (Wouldn't it be mind bogglingly hilarious if someone who was genuinely mean had the kindest and sweetest Facebook profile?  Now that's a plot twist.) 

In the article, Parker-Pope mentions a Dr. Sam Gosling, a psychology professor at the University of Texas, who lead a research study on 236 young adults and their Facebook profiles, to see if the online version of themselves matched who they said they were.  Dr. Gosling raises a number of questions on the use of social networking, and one in particular that just blew the cap of my average shaped head.  He asks, “Is Facebook an opportunity to promote ourselves, a P.R. exercise? Or is it just another medium of social communication, like the telephone?”

Woah.  I never really realized what I thought of Facebook until I read this question.  I usually wake up, roll out of bed, sit at my desk, log on, read what people complained about the night before, and log off, without even thinking about it.  I guess if I really think about it, Facebook is a way for me to communicate with my friends.  It's a way for me to keep up with what they are up to, so I am more integrated in their lives, or so I don't miss the occasional party.  I can see however how some people would use Facebook to promote themselves.  I have seen people get in intense political debates in the online world, debates I never would have seen them make in reality.  Perhaps speaking from a computer screen far from the range of the other person's fists is a way for people to speak with an air of confidence that they are unfamiliar with.

For the most part, I think people are genuine in the world of social networking.  It does make you wonder though, that when you meet someone online, what is he or she really like?  Dr. Gosling says that the only true way to examine someone's personality is face to face.  To keep things simple, people might act the same on Facebook, but nothing beats having a real conversation with someone.  Especially one so hilarious you can actually SEE and APPRECIATE the water coming out of their nose after you have made them laugh so hard their lungs hurt.  I personally wonder if Mark Zuckerberg is as confident and sociable as his grand website?  The movie The Social Network didn't make it appear so, but perhaps that's just another misinterpretation of personality.    

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg