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. With LieSpace!
Posted by Rob Walker on October 30, 2007
Posted Under: "Social" studies
Posted Under: "Social" studies
I’ve long contended that most of the stuff we read about how people are so “confessional” online is a bunch of hooey. MySpace and its ilk aren’t about confessing. They’re about presenting a marketed version of yourself — better looking, smarter, cooler, etc.
And what better summation of this could there be than the fact that everybody’s “friend” Tom has evidently been lying about his age. He wasn’t 27 when co-founded MySpace, he was 32. Soon he’ll be 37, a veritable geezer! Thumbs up, Tom.
Further diversion may be found at MKTG Tumblr, and the Consumed Facebook page.
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Kim Fellner's book 
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Reader Comments
There is actually some research out there on this, and it shows that – it depends. People definitely selectively withhold and fabricate information on MySpace – it’s part of the practice there – but are almost shockingly truthful on Facebook. This makes sense when each is placed in its proper context – since FB is still mostly college-oriented, its users aren’t going to lie to each other – they see each other every day, and FB is a social utility for them (a place where AIMs are stored). As to Tom, well – wanker.
For Facebook, see
Acquisti, Alessandro and Ralph Gross. 2006. “Imagined Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook.” Privacy Enhancing Technologies. Cambridge: June 28-30.
and
Gross, Ralph and Alessandro Acquisti. (2005). Information Revelation and Privacy in Online Social Networks. Proceedings of WPES’05 (pp. 71-80). Alexandria, VA: Association of Computing Machinery.
For MySpace and some comparative metrics, see
Lenhart, A. and Madden, M. (2007) Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace. Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 18, 2007.