"Profiles are digital bodies, public displays of identity where people can explore impression management. Because the digital world requires people to write themselves into being, profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media."
"Creating a text like an SNS profile is necessarily a self-reflexive act to some degree since it involves the choice and assembly of self-related episodes and attributes..." (p. 286)
In one of my classes in high school, we had a discussion about our Facebook pages in relation to upcoming college applications. Around that time, it made the news that colleges, especially prestigious universities, that were going through applications and/or starting the interview processes would take a look at a potential student's Facebook profile. Our teacher asked us then how we felt about that, was it fair, do we agree with this practice, etc. The general consensus was yes, absolutely it was fair for an institution to make a judgement about you, based on information that you put out on the internet in a public privatized space. This then led into a discussion about representation - how accurate can a Facebook profile be, if we are controlling it.
In this social media age, everyone is their own manager and publicist - online, we all must manage our own image. We are all manicuring and fashioning our profile to some extent in order to project a certain image or representation of ourselves, regardless of how well that virtual image lines up with the "real" us. We paint that picture with every single choice we make in our profile: name (real, silly, fake, middle name included?), education and work (to include or not to include?), politics and religion (potentially step on some toes? stay true to who you are? or stay non-controversial?), and statuses (funny, witty, political, newsy, quotidian, passive agressive, poetic, journal-like?).
And of course, a picture says a thousand words. A Facebook profile picture is the first thing that anyone will see. A great amount of thought and judgment are put into a profile picture, but there is a tension straddling two sides - what you want and who you are, and what others will think when they see it. What do I like v. How do I want to be seen? I think this is what Lundby means by saying that it is a self-reflexive act - we look at not just our profile pictures, but our entire page through our own eyes, and then through (what we think are) the eyes of someone else. Then we edit according to these 2 judgements. The following is a popular guide to understanding what your profile picture says about you.
I think it is important to remember that a great deal of this self-image manipulation comes not only from the type of things you do post, but also in large part from the things you choose to keep off: filtering. Not only editing, but deleting and actively deciding not to post something speak volumes. This could be statuses, comments, relationship status and especially photos. Whereas it was once considered "authentic" or "genuine" to not fiddle with your page in a sort of laissez-faire, hands-off approach, it's now seen as downright stupid. This shift from image management from being seen as shady, paranoid or superficial to now seen as the prudent and responsible thing to do. The days of a 100% unmanaged profile are over. No longer does anyone let their page take on a life of their own. If necessary, people will untag photos and delete statuses or friends' wall posts to shape their identity, and opt for a private message or chat in lieu of a public wall post.
Of course, this is in response to a widening circle of friends. Whereas a LinkedIn profile is for the professional world and an online dating profile is for the personal world, Facebook is increasingly all-encompassing. For example, on Facebook I have added not only friends, but family, co-workers, teachers, and bosses. Accordingly, I have to watch what I say, what my friends say (something much harder to control), and what photos I am tagged in. "How to Suck at Facebook" is a web comic describing the "types" of friends we all have seen on Facebook; most detrimental to themselves are the Filterless, the Passive Aggressor and the Horrible Photo Tagger.
It's not at all unusual to go to a party and have some type of ban on photos: either none at all, none posted on Facebook, or none posted with tags. Or someone will simply say, "Hey, don't post that one okay, I have family and my boss added on Facebook." If I had a bad day at work, Facebook is not the place to complain, because I'm friends with my manager. And in this day, more and more people are.
Managing your own image is not only for the employed. As the recession hit and competition for a limited number of jobs increased, companies taking a look at an online profile before application review, interviewing or hiring became the norm. It was the natural, Darwinian response to the bad economy - weeding out the careless people who put out this information about themselves in the first place. Before, it seemed invasive and excessive - now it was fair game, and it has become an unofficial staple of the employment process. But recently, colleges, potential employers, government agencies and scholarship providers are taking more than just the cursory glance at a Facebook profile: "forced friending" to gain access to friends-only posts, and "shoulder surfing" or asking applicant to hand over their passwords. Reacting against this, states hurried to pass legislation banning employers from asking for SMS passwords.
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