The Face Behind Facebook

By Kaitlin Schluter, editor-in-chief | Journalism major

She likes to listen to Bob Marley and The Civil Wars. Her hometown is Colorado Springs and as of a few months ago, she now lives in Azusa. In her spare time, between studies at Azusa Pacific University, she enjoys having deep conversation, playing guitar, and acting. Her religion is “Saved. Forgiven.” Oh, and she’s single.

Meet freshman theater arts major Mackenzie Breeden, through the lens of her Facebook profile.

Breeden, like over 800 million active Facebook users, is participating in an online phenomenon that is shaping the way we think about identity. Getting to know a person used to be limited to face-to-face interaction. But with today’s technology, a quick round of “Facebook stalking” can make you feel nearer and closer to understanding the person standing next to you. Identity now comes packaged in the form of an online profile, complete with profile pictures, statuses, tagged images, comments, and interests that serve as indicators of the individual’s personality.

Much like the old adage, don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s becoming easier to judge a person by their Facebook profile. We’re becoming ‘open books’ to the world, intentionally or not, but to what extent has social media become a way we get to know each other?

Building ‘you’ online

“I definitely have one layer on Facebook,” said Breeden, who is selective in what she posts. “I’m not an in-depth person on Facebook because I want people to get to know me and not my Facebook. I put what I am generally to people, that funny girl…but when they know me, I feel like they know there’s more to me than funny faces.”

Chris Adams, junior communication studies major, also utilizes Facebook to “make a name for himself” with some exceptions. He doesn’t post about his religious beliefs or political stances, but merely uses Facebook as a tool to connect with friends. On his profile, you’d discover that Adams is an L.A. Dodgers fan and loves reading Calvin and Hobbes comics. Oh, and he’s also single.

But Adams also sees people using social media to create a false, modified identity.

“I feel like a lot of people try, not me personally, to display themselves better than who they are,” said Adams. “They make themselves look real good and real cool. They look all put together when in reality, that may not be the case.”

Back in the 1950s, sociologist Erving Goffman attempted to reason through his book “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” how people create identity. He described people as actors, performing on a stage before an audience that is the world. In order to sell the performance, they create a “front,” which includes varying degrees of actions, objects, and settings. Today, we’ve modernized the “front” by producing witty Facebook statuses and eye-catching pictures to convince our audience of who we really are.

Future of digital identity

Evan Carroll, co-author of “The Digital Afterlife,” sees a “proflection” emerging with digital identity, in lieu of Goffman’s analysis. “Proflection” is a combination of projecting and reflecting identity through the items posted.

Carroll would argue that profiles have become valuable, replacing the traditional means of preserving memories through scrapbooks and VHS recordings. But with technology, Carroll and co-author James Romano came upon a startling realization: When we die, we don’t have a game plan to preserve these personal artifacts.

“As things are collecting online, we are really collecting ourselves,” said Carroll. “We are the curator and collector of our personal collection. And we believe there’s an opportunity to pull all of that together, even when you as the curator is gone.”

It wasn’t until CNN contacted them, when they realized they might be on to something. They had created a blog, called “The Digital Beyond,” which discussed digital estate planning, but later they compiled these findings into their book that released in late 2010.

“It shows that we, as individuals, are saying we live our lives online and that’s something people see with all the stuff they actually have out there,” said Carroll. “It’s the recognition that this is a lifespan of a person. It’s not a fad.”

Jeff Ginger also noted the growing influence of technology in personal identity. As a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ginger collaborated with a team to research the impact of Facebook during its early stages. They created “The Facebook Project,” an online academic community that functioned from 2006 to 2009. Ginger, who is currently in the process of getting a Ph.D. in social and community informatics, has observed Facebook transform from a college student only domain to an international network.

With the shift, he sees the Internet becoming a diversified arena where new identities can be explored in positive ways.

“A person who identifies as gay may not be able to do so openly to their family, but could admit their sexuality openly to friends or communities on the Internet, and this could be quite empowering,” said Ginger, who also sees the Internet tying closer to offline identity.

Communicating values through your profile

With the launch of Facebook’s new timeline design on October 26, 2011, a further shift is occurring to emphasize the long-term implications of digital identity. The design, which prompts users to “tell your life story with a new kind of profile,” documents of life as it happens digitally from birth to death. Mari Smith, social media expert and author of “The New Relationship Marketing,” sees Facebook wanting to become the center of one’s online identity.

But she’s not impressed.

“I’m not that ecstatic about it myself and am restricting entries from the past,” said Smith. “I don’t see any need to go down memory lane and document my life on one platform. It’s an interesting idea, nonetheless.”

Regardless of the varying implications of digital identity, the way we manage it may force the individual to ask, ‘Is it all authentic?’ At APU, student leaders are held up to a higher degree of scrutiny when it comes to online identity. Stacie Champine, director of Orientation and Transitions, says she checks every Facebook profile of Alpha program applicants. She realizes there may be an unfair advantage for those with private profiles, but also values consistency in a student leader.

“Facebook can help to be one lens in which we can look, and that doesn’t mean that gives the full identity picture of the student,” said Champine. “But it does allow us to see one piece of what is important to that person.”

PROTECT YOUR DIGITAL IDENTITY

Social media can be an expressive tool to share identity with others, but when your personal data gets in the hands of the wrong person, the consequences can be severe. Robert Sicillano, identity theft expert and proclaimed “McAfee Online Security Evangelist,” shares basic tips to protecting your online identity. “It’s not what data is out there, but what can be done with that data that could affect your security posture,” Sicillano said.

1. Be picky with your friends: Don’t add a person as a Facebook friend unless you feel you can trust that person. Facebook does offer privacy setting that limit the amount of information the public, friends, and specific people can access. If you friend random people, you open yourself up to unwanted exposure.
2. Avoid geographic locators: People are easily tagging where they are and whom they are with. But with these locaters, it allows others to know where you’re not. Burglars may break into your living area, knowing you are gone. On a smaller campus, revealing your specific location can also let strangers know how to find you quickly.
3. Advertise family relations with scrutiny: When you forget your password, you typically are asked to respond to knowledge-based questions. These queries ask for your mother’s maiden name and the names of your pets, children, and high school. Most people advertise this information freely on their main profile. Either remove or set privacy settings to who can access this information.