Facebook Display pictures: The construction of one's identity in the realm of social networking

7/31/2019 Facebook Display pictures: The construction of one's identity in the realm of social networking

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Tunga Vamshi Raju (10SCMC01) and

Mr. Aditya Deshbandhu (10SCMC02); final year M.A. students for the

academic year 2011-12 at the Department of Communication,

University of Hyderabad have completed this research project under

my guidance.

Dr. Kanchan K Malik

Associate Professor,

Department of Communication,

University of Hyderabad.


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ABSTRACT

The study conducted by us looks at the role played by displayed pictures, an

important part of the visual element of ones online existence on social networking

websites such as Facebook. The study then understands the importance of the

display picture, the role it plays in the social networking experience and the kinds of

images that users use as their respective display pictures. The data that was collected

for our analysis was through a two-step process with both quantitative and

qualitative phases employing a mix methods approach to research.

Our study through its findings then establishes how the display picture

becomes not only a mere extension of ones offline identity online but becomes

paramount in order to create and validate the identity in a transparent culturalspace

such as Facebook. The study then also looks at the various trends that were

prevalent in the way display pictures were selected or modified using editing

software.

The other major area that our study delves into is how the idea of display

pictures appeals to the female gender and how safe the female respondents felt in a

nonymous space such as Facebook. (Zhao et al. 2008)


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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT......01

INTRODUCTION....02

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM.03RESEARCH RATIONALE.05

AIMS ANDOBJECTIVES..07

METHODOLGY.08

LITERATURE REVIEW10

FACEBOOK IDENTITY CREATION..15WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE..23WHY THE NEED FOR THE SOCIAL NETWORKING

EXPERIENCE?...............................................................................25

ENCODING AND DECODING..........27EXECUTION OF METHODLOGY...29

QUANTITATIVE DATA29


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QUALITATIVE DATA31GROUP SELECTION..32THE DISCUSSION33

DATA ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATION.35

WHY THE DISPLAY PICTURE36ROLE OF DISPLAY PICTURE ON ONLINE IDENTITY..40TRENDS IN DISPLAY PICTURE........42WHAT MUST A GOOD DISPLAY PICTURE HAVE? ............47DISPLAY PICTURES, PHOTO EDITING, PRIVACY AND

GENDER47

CONCLUSION53

LIMITATION.57

REFERENCES59

ANNEXURE I.64

QUESTIONNAIREANNEXURE 269

TRANSCRIPTIONS OF FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS


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FIGURE 1....36

FIGURE 2....39

FIGURE 3....39

FIGURE 4....42

FIGURE 543

FIGURE 6....44

FIGURE 745

FIGURE 8....48

FIGURE 9...........49

FIGURE 10.....51


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the conclusion of our research we would like to thank the following people

for their help, without which the completion of our research would have been

impossible. First and foremost we would like to thank our guide Dr. Kanchan K Malik

for her invaluable advice and support through the course of the various stages of the

research.

We also thank Prof. Vinod Pavarala for helping us start the research by

providing us grounding in various research methodologies as part of our

Communication Research course. We would also like to thank Dr. Usha Raman for

her priceless input in our quantitative research method and helping us refine our

questionnaire and providing face validity to it.

We then would most importantly thank the 120 respondents who were part

of our sample for the research study and the 15 people among them who

subsequently took part in the focus group discussions for their valuable time and

opinion. Our research wouldnt have been possible without them.

Lastly we would also like to thank Mrs. Venkatlaksmi for providing us with the

digital audio recording equipment throughout the qualitative phase of our research

and the Dept. of Communication for this opportunity to work on academic research

as a part of our course.


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INTRODUCTION

The research is to understand the role of Facebook profile pictures with

respect to the online social networking experience. In our research we have

attempted to look at how ones profile picture affect the social life one leads in the

online world. We have looked at how ones social life and offline existence affects

the profile picture. In other words the focus is on the profile picture and its

significance and function in the sphere of social networking.

The focus of the study we have conducted is on the decision making process

of how a certain picture is deemed worthyof being ones profile picture, the various

factors that come into play when that choice is being made as well as the entire

thought process while making that decision. The study also tries to understand how

instrumental these images are in the creation of an online life which is not

necessarily consistent with ones offline life. We have also attempted to understand

how consistent these images are then with the social image being projected by the

users online.

Our study also makes an effort to look at how the nature of pictures chosen

differs with respect to what one seeks out of his/her social networking process. We

endeavour to look at these pictures as messages and from the perspectives of

encoding and decoding these messages to make interpretations. This is done in order

to get a clearer idea of what effect the pictures have on the viewers, what messages


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are construed by them, and how do online users arrive at these judgements (Stuart

Hall, 1992).

The primary questions we have attempted to answer through this study are:

1. How do issues like Gender, Privacy, Identity, and social insecurity influencethem?

2. What makes participants (users of social networking sites) to choose displaypictures?

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

We feel this research is important at this juncture as we are at the crossroads

where the bubble of the social networking phenomenon has clearly become large

enough for the world to notice and it has become an exciting prospect for online

existence. Another issue is that though social networking has become the latest

trend to take the internet by storm, there has been no possibility to convert the

millions of users online into viable sources of revenue. The problem has been that

economically the trend has yet to realise its full potential. Our study however does

not look at the economic aspect but has been carried out at time of this uneasy

economic climate.

In our study we are attempting to analyse the effect of profile picture on the

entire social networking experience. Though most of the research that has been

conducted on social networking has largely looked at the need for social networking


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and the way people negotiate with it, not much has been done to look at the profile

pictures as a subject of study. We have looked at this in order to understand the role

of these images and how their importance varies from person to person. Our study

looks at people aged between 17-30 years, which we have loosely define as youth.

The study requires this youth to have a Facebook account for at least a year and that

he or she logs in to the account at least once a week. A person who fulfils these

conditions will be termed a Facebook user.

We have studied and analysed these Facebook users in order to understand

how they use their profile pictures to further their different motives in online social

networking. We look at how these pictures help the users create a nonymous (non-

anonymous) identity online in a network where one is always closely scrutinized and

where every step that one takes is monitored by each and every one in his/her social

network (Zhao et al. 2011). We have looked at the following questions in our

research:

1. What makes participants (users of social networking sites) to choose displaypictures?

2. What makes Facebook users not use pictures of their own?3. How do issues like Gender, Privacy, Identity, and social insecurity influence

them?

4. How often do they change their display picture? What makes them changethe images?


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5. How important are the comments on the display pictures to the users?The study also focuses on the issues of self-representation and identity

creation online, it helps us understand the idea that people want to present

themselves in a positive manner in both the physical and virtual world: being able to

self-present in a positive manner has been tied to physical survival. People are very

self-conscious about their appearances and want to be prepared to look good for

anyone who may be viewing their profile. There are people who want to keep their

age hidden from the public, as they think, showing or revealing their actual age is

not necessary as long as your display picture is attractive.

People who are self-conscious may want to put a great looking picture of

them, in order to get a positive comment, or post to it make their self-esteem higher:

individuals with low self-esteem orient toward self-enhancement while those with

high self-esteem try to protect themselves. Having high self-esteem seems to be a

social compensation for an individual in the virtual world. People like compliments,

looking attractive, and sharing their interests with others.

RESEARCH RATIONALE

The reason for our study is to understand how similar is the online world of

social networking to a traditional social space where people tend to portray

themselves, in the words of Goffman, in the best possible light and thus attempt to

hide their flaws and weaknesses. With social networking, the amount of contact has


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only gone up and visibility has only become higher forcing people to work all the

more hard to portray cleaner and desirable sides of them.

This study attempts to understand how these goals are achieved through

online profile pictures.


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Aims and Objectives of the Study

We have attempted to answer the following questions through our research

in order to get a clear understanding of how Facebook profile pictures affect the

social life of an individual on the website or vice versa i.e. a persons life affecting the

choice of Facebook profile picture? The earlier questions have been refined after the

review.

After the literature review we have arrived at the following questions that we

feel are the most important to be answered:

1. What are the various factors that one takes into consideration before making acertain picture his or herprofile picture?

2. Does the fact that the picture is well received by ones social network have aneffect on the time period of the picture remaining as the profile picture?

3. How does the number of friends on ones social network affect the frequency ofchanging profile pictures?

4. How consistent are the pictures selected as profile pictures with the virtualidentity one has created on his or her profile?

5. Is there a relationship of some sort between the number of likes and positivecomments received for a profile picture and the number of hours then

consequently spent Facebook?

What message is the user trying to convey through the profile picture?


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METHODOLOGY

METHOD: This study uses explanatory research design from the mix methods

approach to research. The methodology is essentially divided into two stages and as

the design suggests, the quantitative stage will be followed by the qualitative phase.

STAGE 1: Survey method with cross-sectional design will be using a questionnaire as

research instrument.

STAGE 2: Focus group discussions will be used to get us further insights into the

open-ended questions of the research instrument i.e. the questionnaire

The method will be using the follow up model to get more qualitative data to

explain a few questions from the questionnaire via focus group discussions. The

subjects selected for the focus group discussions would be taken from the sample

that was used for the quantitative data.

Our study will be looking at young college going youth between the age

groups of 17-30 years. The sample will be chosen from the city of Hyderabad and the

sample size will be of 120.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS:

1. FACEBOOK USERS: People who have been using the social networking siteFacebook for more than a period of one year who log-in into their accounts at

least once a week. This will be termed in the study as a regular user.


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2. PROFILE PICTURE: Images used by Facebook users to identify with theirprofiles on the website.

STAGE I

SAMPLING METHOD: Purposive-convenient sampling

SAMPLE SIZE: 120

SAMPLING FRAME (PROCEDURE):

I.

The sample selected was purposive in the sense that only people who havebeen using the website for a period of one year or more were selected.

II. The sample comprised students from within the various centres of higherlearning in and around the city. Some students from the Hyderabad Central

University were also chosen due to their proximity, as they could be part of

the repeat-measures validity.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT: The researchers used a questionnaire as the

research instrument. The instrument of data collection, i.e. the questionnaire was

administered to the selected respondents. The questionnaire was a mixture of open

ended and closed ended questions. A face validity test was also done for the

questionnaire. The questionnaires were researcher administered to aid the Stage II

of the methodology. A copy of the instrument has also been included in the thesis as

Appendix - I.

PRE-TEST:A pre-test of the questionnaire was carried out with about 20 people.

This exercise enabled us to refine and improve the research instrument.

DESIGN: In our study, we used the cross-sectional design for data collection as it

enabled us to get information specific to the time period of our research.


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The cross-sectional design is used when one needs information specific to a

given time; we are using this for our study because it will help us get information

from people about their attitudes, beliefs and habits on Facebook profile pictures at

the time of the survey.

VALIDITY: After the data collection and analysis, we performed a post-test

validity by re-administering the same questionnaires to 15 people of the original

sample to check the consistency of responses by them after a small gap in time.

STAGE II: FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS

Since we are using the explanatory design method we conducted Focus Group

Discussions (FGDs) to glean more information into the various open ended questions

of the survey. Since the questionnaires were researcher administered, we were able

to pick people from within the sample for these discussions.

We selected 20 people from the sample who were willing to discuss the

questions related to our study further. . We held FGDs with three groups of five

people each. The discussions lasted for about an hour or so. The focus group

discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed for purpose of obtaining

the qualitative data to supplement our quantitative findings. This qualitative data has

been used to explain the trends that emerge from the quantitative phase.


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LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION:

Facebook, as a phenomenon per se, has permeated the cyber world today

with its limitless reach, appealing design, and the host of facilities the website has to

offer. It has become a clear favourite and trendsetter in the realm of social

networking. Our research focuses on the aspects of virtual representation in this

realm. In our study, we look at the process of profile picture selection and the

decision process that precedes this selection. We also look at the various factors that

are taken into consideration before a user deems a picture is fit to be his profile

picture.

Our literature review provides clear insights into the whole social networking

process and the way the users negotiate with these websites. The initial part of the

review gives us a clear idea about how the people create identities on Facebook and

how their profile pictures are a part of maintaining that created identity. This enables

us to understand virtual representation and how the use of profile pictures enables

the Facebook experience? Our later part of the review looks at what makes the

people seek the social networking experience from the perspective of the Uses &

Gratification theory (Katz, et. al M. 1974).

Most of the research done in this area has been centred on understanding the

need for social networking and sites such as Facebook, how users negotiate with


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such websites, interact with them, use them and most of all how the phenomenon

has taken the world of internet and cyber-space by storm.

Facebook as a site is unlimited in its potential for connecting people and the

variety of features it offers to various users. This this is evident from the success of

the website in the sphere of social networking in recent years, considering it merely

started off as a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with

their friends, family and coworkers (Facebook Factsheet, 2010).

By the end of 2009, 75 per cent of internet users between the ages of 18-24

had an account on a social networking site (Lenhart, 2009). Facebook, the market

leader and trendsetter in social networking, has 500 million active users who spend

seven billion minutes a month using it. This gives us a good idea of how social

networking sites have permeated our internet experience. (Facebook Factsheet,

2010).

In todays world of digital convergence where there is access to the various

media of interpersonal communication on a continuous basis, young adults are heavy

consumers of digital products and consequently are influenced by computer

technology that probably makes them impatient and more demanding for fast

results. These young adults constantly send text-messages and call others in order to

find out current information or to know whats going on. Social networking sites

(SNS) are a useful and convenient tool for staying connected to the events of a

friends life with ease.


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Compared to calling a person and having a conversation in the conventional

way, on Facebook, members can visit a members profile or send them a quick

message to find out what they want to know. Users of social networking sites (SNS)

employ them to have selective, efficient, and immediate reach for their (mediated)

interpersonal communication with others and as an on-going way to seek the

approval and support of other people. Such uses are possible only now through new

technology offered by the Internet.

Moreover, SNS users can update their profile to convey impressions of

themselves and occurrences in their lives to a large audience without contacting

each member of that audience on an individual basis. Research also suggests that the

openness and transparency of SNS is highly popular among users. Many people feel

that this transparency allows them to gain information on others quickly (Urista,

et.al, 2010).

This brings us to one of the more interesting aspects of the online audiences.

According to Dicken-Garcia (1998) when users communicate electronically, they end

up saying what they might never say in person or on the phone. Internet users

sometimes take on new personalities, ages, and genders, all of these exemplified by

less inhibited behaviour (Ruggiero, 2000). She also noted that Internet talk resembles

word of mouth more than newspapers and television, and that, often, users

unquestionably accept information via the Internet that they would not accept so

readily from another medium (p.22).


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This shift to social networking sites for communication related purposes is a

familiar trend today. A social networking site like Facebook has become a virtual

contact portal where one can communicate with friends, acquaintances, colleagues,

with a level of trust and transparency which seems absent in other media of

interpersonal communication.

However, it will not be safe to assume that the access of a social networking

site is easy. The level of familiarity with the internet and the issues of access to the

medium are barriers to the social networking experience. Also, the most important

factor would be to consider the aspect of connectivity. The amount of social

interaction on a website like Facebook will clearly be determined by the availability

of the resource, internet access in this case, and the frequency of internet access.

As expected, internet experience determines the time spent on social

networking sites. People with more diverse internet experience spend more time on

social networking websites than those with less internet experience (Jiyoung Cha,

2008). The number of hours respondents spend on Facebook is directly proportional

to maintaining relationships and passing time motives. Users who most often log into

their Facebook accounts are the ones who go there to maintain existing

relationships, pass time when bored, be entertained or appear cool. Younger users,

females and those interested in maintaining existing relationships through Facebook

have more Facebook friends than users with other interests. As Parks and Floyd

(1996) noted, those who posted more often had developed a greater number of

personal relationships. Studies show that not many people go to Facebook to escape


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from problems in real life or to lessen loneliness by finding companionship. (Pavica

Sheldon, 2007).

This brings us to the following questions:

1. What is the utility of accessing a social networking website such as Facebook?2. How do the users negotiate with such a website? What do they gain from the

experience?

FACEBOOK IDENTITY CREATION

Building a profile on Facebook allows each user to be able to post notes,

photos, links, and videos which he/she can share with friends that is, the users

who are connected to an individuals online social network, and thus granted access

to view the individuals profile. The Home Page allows each Facebook user to be

constantly updated on the most recent postings and interactions with and among

friends. Facebook users can also enable Facebook Chat to instant message online

friends in real time.

All this mixture gives the user a completely networked experience. All the

above mentioned elements of Facebook combine to allow its users to construct an

image or identity to communicate to the greater online community. This identity is

the one that the user extends to other fellow users online and also the identity that

he/she wants other users to accept. In other words, the identity he/she creates on

social networking websites is often the way the user wants to be perceived. (Watson,

et. al 2006)


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Perhaps one of the most telling pieces of self-disclosure or image construction

is the profile photo, the single default photo by which Facebook users choose to

identify themselves within the entire network. It is instrumental in the creation and

perpetuation of that identity which has been so painstakingly created by the user.

(Hum et.al 2011).

However, despite this, not much research has been done on the aspect of

Facebook profile pictures and the very relevance of what messages they can convey,

how instrumental they are in the process of identity creation online on social

networking websites. Regarding profile pictures, Hancock and Toma (2009) noted

that, with the emergence of profile-based social networking sites like MySpace and

Facebook, online self-presentations are no longer limited to text-based descriptions.

The profile photograph is now a central component of online self-presentation, and

one that is critical for relational success (p. 368).

Recent studies have examined the various factors that can be attributed and

examined citing various reasons such as to how users gain social capital by creating

new friendships and maintaining existing ones in the virtual sphere of social

networking (Lenhart, 2009; Valenzuela, et. Al 2009). This in turn leads to the creation

and then the consequent rise of the self-image of the user (Utz, 2010; Zhang, 2010).

All these recent studies are part of a new stream of research on social

networking that wants to point out that the constant use of social networking sites

like Facebook by the young generation of today and the over reliance on computer-

mediated-communication actually not only reinforces ones skills of interpersonal


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communication, but also helps in growth of interpersonal relationships and skills of

socializing with the community at large. One could also at this stage fairly assume

that when friends from the virtual world meet in person in the offline world the

familiarity and rapport they share online will also remain in the personal experience.

As mentioned above, a lot of research studies are now being conducted by

various scholars studying the phenomena of social networking to look at the

platform as to how a user connects with himself/herself and how they represent

themselves in this realm, this is then further taken ahead by researchers who are

now attempting to understand how this representation helps connecting with other

users online.

This brings us back to the concept of Social capital. Social capital as

envisioned by Scheufele & Shah (2000) is a concept that can be broadly segregated

into three domains:

I. Interpersonal,II. Intrapersonal, and

III. BehavioralThe interpersonal domain looks at the various interactions one has with his or

her social network. In the case of Facebook this includes a host of activities that are

available to the user, such as, putting up a status, commenting on a status, picture or

video that is shared by someone in ones social network, chatting real-time with a

member from the network, poking a friend, liking ones status or other posts. In


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short, the website is a paradise for people involved in interpersonal relations on the

virtual platform.

The intrapersonal domain describes the inner emotions and levels of self-

satisfaction within the individual; in this case it would be the user who logs in.

Facebook also has a host of ways for users to even express their innermost emotions.

Creating ones profile on the website enables one to not only share basic information

but also his/her innermost emotions, his/her likes about things such as movies,

books, ideologies, music and his/her interests. The user can network in fan groups

which are classified sub-networks and share his innermost thoughts with likeminded

people. Interestingly, on the homepage of Facebook, the place where one puts in

ones status is called: Whats on your mind?

The behavioral domain involves the individuals participation in civic and

political activities. Facebook and social networking websites may not directly have

content to offer on this aspect but they surely are virtual public spheres for people

who coagulate and consider such issues. Recently, the Anna Hazare movement in

India was popularized and taken forward via Facebook and so were the movements

of liberation in countries of the Middle East, Egypt - in particular where a certain girl

child was christened Facebook by her parents.

However, other studies have revealed that the use of Facebook was found to

be positively associated with higher levels of self-satisfaction and social trust

(Valenzuela et al., 2009). In other words, individuals who regularly and consciously

maintained an online identity felt more connected with their various online friends


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and possessed an overall higher level of happiness and social contentment. This

finding was also supported by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007), who concluded

that the perception of being connected to others is partly due to the convenience

and free-of-cost services that Facebook provides, such as daily reminders of friends

birthdays.

Additionally, establishing social connections is positively linked with

establishing a social identity, and Facebook users successfully do this by indicating

membership of certain subgroups (race, gender, sexuality, etc.) and subcultures

(music, movies, etc.) (Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert, 2009). Respondents to the

above mentioned study indicated that one of the most important uses of Facebook

was to not only learn information about others, but to reconnect with real-life

friends and older friends that one gradually loses contact with over the years. The

architecture of the website design is such that it enables re-connection of older

friendships and relations that one would have lost in the reclusive lifestyle we lead

today.

One of the largest appeals of Facebook therein lies in the ability to expand and

strengthen ones social network. To highlight another dimension of social capital,

Facebook groups (an application feature that allows a user to join a sub-network of

people with a common interest) have the power to increase civic and political

participation through a reciprocal relationship (Valenzuela et al., 2009). The fact that

young voters use Facebook to communicate their political opinions and that these

(Facebook) groups use the community of registered voters to disseminate political


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information illustrates the effectiveness of Facebook to unite and empower

communities with similar interests and views.

If one of the benefits of Facebook is to bring individuals in a community

together, then it also makes sense that Facebook provides a means for self-

expression in order to form these social, geographical, and political connections. The

idea of self-construction in the public gaze and a setting such as Facebook where

today, ones self representation and portrayal is constantly scrutinized and analyzed

by ones various contacts and the entire social network is critical to our

understanding of how and why individuals communicate on and through social

networking sites.

This makes us arrive at another question and quite an important one which is,

how accurate are these descriptions and images which are created by the various

people on their social networking accounts? Here accuracy doesnt necessarily mean

factual accuracy but a broader aspect as to how accurate is a virtual identity in its

description of the owner of the identity in the true off-line sense.

Zhao, Grasmuch, and Martin (2008, p. 211) identified hoped-for, possible

identities as social networking identities that were not necessarily consistent with

real-life personalities. These online identities were often shaped through positive

word affirmations that described an individual as socially desirable and outgoing

(Zhao et al.).

Furthermore, these identities were carefully constructed to reflect social and

cultural norms; researchers noted that the creation of seemingly separate online


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identities is not an innate behavior, but rather a response to the social conditions

and environment that the individual is placed in.

Researchers have also found that Facebook users generally construct their

self-identity through indirect, mimetic ways that show viewers glimpses of their

personalities instead of explicit, direct cues (Zhao et al., 2008). For example, a

participants Facebook status publicly claimed her love and devotion to her husband.

This behavior not only reinforces what Zhao et al. describes as affirmations of

accepted societal norms (in this case, heterosexuality), but also illustrates how users

create identities through implicit communication, leaving clues for viewers to pick

up and interpret.

Utz (2010) expanded on this theory when she studied online impression

formation through inferences made when looking at an individuals Facebook

friends. When looking at communal traits, which enhance ones social desirability,

respondents judged the level of these traits based on the impressions received from

the individuals friends; that is, the profiles of the individuals online followers (Utz).

This type of online behavior is often equated to nonverbal behavior in traditional

face-to-face communication; context cues derived from implicit sources are

perceived as more indicative of ones identity, thus working to assist greatly with

impression formation (Tidwell & Walther, 2006).

Perceptions of social desirability are not the only inference Facebook users

attempt to determine from others profiles. Walther, et al. (2008) found that the

level of attractiveness of ones friends had a significant impact on the perception of


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attractiveness of the user whose profile was being examined. Additionally, Walther

et al.s results were consistent with Utzs (2010) finding that friends who were

perceived as outgoing and social helped to increase the perception of social

attractiveness of the Facebook user. These perceptions of sociable friends were

formed after analyzing photos and wall posts (Walther et al.).

A Facebook profile then, is the product of not only self-generated information,

but of a combination of that and the inferences made from indirect sources of online

communication. This idea of self-construction in an online environment warrants

further investigation into how subgroups of young adults college students utilize

SNSs to create an image of them. Seventy-four percent of students reported that

their Facebook profiles were accurate representations of themselves (Stern & Taylor,

2007), suggesting that identity construction is a key consideration when determining

which information to post or not.

According to Bugeja (2006), Christine Rosen, a fellow at the Ethics and Public

Policy Center in Washington DC, he commented that Facebook and similar sites are

not really about the fostered connections in the online community, but rather serve

as vehicles by which individuals can participate in ego casting, [which is] the

thoroughly personalized and extremely narrow pursuit of ones personal taste.

Rosen further argues that Facebook users have a tendency to describe

themselves like products (Bugeja, 2006, p. 2). Indeed, a study conducted by Pempek

et al. (2009) found that self-presentation was one of the most popular reasons

college students were attracted to and continued to use, Facebook. Pempek et al.


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argued that perhaps one of the biggest reasons for being attracted to carefully

selected self-presentation is to resolve key developmental issues such as identity

and intimacy development (p. 236).

The findings by Zhao et al. (2008) that established the idea of showing, not

telling, when constructing online identities support our argument that the study of

content of implicit communication cues of Facebook profiles, i.e., profile photos,

would add to the growing knowledge of identity construction in social media

contexts. Mesch and Beker (2010) concluded that the norms of offline self-disclosure

did not necessarily coincide with the separately developed norms of online self-

disclosure. Online self-disclosure was more open and expressive, perhaps due to the

perception of anonymity in online communities (as opposed to face-to-face

interactions) or the more intense need for uncertainty reduction

Foon Hews (2011) review of students uses of Facebook similarly indicated

that greater self-disclosure occurred on Facebook than offline. Whatever the real

reason may be, researchers understand that there are separate rules that establish

and govern the norms of self-disclosure in online identities versus face-to-face

communication settings (Mesch & Beker).

THE WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE

The virtual representation of the individual profile on social networking as

studies dictate is determined by the user interface and the environment friendliness


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of the website. (Papacharissi, 2009) in his work suggests that the website

architecture of Facebook is much more flexible and friendly enabling users to make

more regular and conscious changes to their online profiles where as in the case of a

LinkedIn a similar website with a much more formal setup and architecture this is

not the case.

The primary focus here is that technology not only in social networking sites

but also in other online social spaces functions architecturally, suggesting particular

uses or highlighting technological affordances. Hutchby (2001) explains how

technologies present a collection of technical, social, human and historical

circumstances that are typical of the era within which they come to be.

From this interactions perspective, the communicative affordances of

technology are seamlessly negotiated among individuals, society and the technology

itself, producing technology that is both socially shaped and socially shaping

(Buckingham, 2008: 12; Williams, 1974). A flexible architecture is cognizant of these

affordances, yet permissive of the dialectic process between humans and

technology. While not entirely neutral, fluid architecture highlights technological

affordances without definitively determining behaviour. The more flexible, although

not utterly flexible, architecture of Facebook highlighted the social affordances of the

technologies, whereas the more defined LinkedIn produces a more definitive effect

on human behaviour.


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Why the need for the Social networking experience?

Research existing on this issue suggests the use of the Uses & Gratification

(U&G) framework for understanding this phenomenon. As new technologies present

people with more and more media choices, motivation and satisfaction become even

more crucial components of audience analysis. Not surprisingly, industrial

researchers have been applying U&G theory to a wide range of newly popularized

video media technologies. Even in the sphere of internet and computer mediated

communication Ruggeiro (2000) suggests the use of this very framework. He feels,

the telecommunication revolution has brought a revival to Uses & Gratification

framework.

Further literature and the various studies conducted in understanding the

social networking phenomenon indicate that the Uses & Gratification framework has

been widely used for various reasons and has been quite successful, the application

of the framework to answer research questions has varied from research on privacy

related concerns on social networking to the mere explanation of the working of

social networking sites.

According to the Uses and Gratifications model, a persons social and

psychological factors influence motives for communicating - their gratifications

sought and gratifications obtained. Studies conclude that gender, and to lesser

extent age and education of college students, were important predictors of using


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Facebook to maintain existing relationships and pass time, with women more likely

to do it than men (Pavica Sheldon, 2007).

Facebook could potentially gratify a variety of motivations. People could use

Facebook because they just transferred to a new school and want to find and meet

new people, or to see who is in their art history class so they can call them and find

information about the next test. Some could use Facebook to discover a potential

love interests favourite music, to keep in touch with old friends from high school, to

put off doing work, or just because everyone else is using Facebook.

Though all of these, to varying degrees, seem to be reasons why people use

Facebook, the most prevalent way in which people use Facebook is as a social utility.

Counter to what may be intuitive, the primary way in which Facebook contributes to

socializing isnt by offering a medium through which people can meet and

communicate with others. Instead, its by acting as a virtual watering hole that

dispenses information about peers. (Brett A. Bumgarner, 2007).

The use of this framework at this moment for our research seems an enticing

proposition as we feel it will give us a lot of insight into the various research

questions that we will be looking at in our study.

The closest we have come to our research topic in study of Profile Pictures has

been the research work by Hum et.al. 2011 and they suggest that the research uses

content analysis as the method with the unit of analysis being each persons current

Facebook photograph. The research was quantitative in nature and merely analyses


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the pictures as it gives no insight into the decision making process of the profile

picture selection which is a crucial area of our study.

ENCODING & DECODING

The Facebook profile pictures are essentially in the words of cultural scientist

Stuart Hall messages that are encoded by the users in a certain way. If we extend the

theory of encoding and decoding to our study we can understand that the user has a

certain idea which he would like to convey through his profile picture and the

message/idea is coded in the form of the picture. The viewers who view the image

decode it in a certain way and using the interactivity that is so primary to the new

medium comment on the message. This comment essentially becomes feedback and

thus this ritual of posting profile pictures online becomes a communication process.

Now if we are to only look at the way the message is decoded by the various

viewers then according to David Morley there are three ways the message can be

decoded:

1. INTENDED DECODING: The decoding is done just as was expected by theencoder; in this case the profile picture is understood just in the right context

as envisaged by the Facebook user who uploaded that photograph.

2. OPPOSITIONAL DECODING: This decoding is done in entirely the opposite wayto what the encoder expected.

3. NEGOTIATED DECODING: A form of decoding where the viewer negotiateswith the message and decodes it with respect to his/her experiences and

circumstances.


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Thus we can expect intended decoding only from the closest of friends and family

and that too only a few times. Opposed decoding seems a little farfetched in this

scenario whereas negotiated seems the most plausible way of decoding the

profile pictures that have been posted.


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Execution of Methodology

INTRODUCTION:

This chapter deals with our description of how the methodology was

implemented and gives the reader an insight into our experiences of obtaining the

primary data. It will hopefully give the reader a much more enhanced understanding

of the analysis that follows as well as give a well-rounded understanding of the entire

process and its implementation.

The data collection and analysis stages of the research project have been

immensely enriching both in terms of information that we have collected and what

we have gleaned through the analysis. The process as dictated in the methodology

was a two pronged effort spread over a period of eight weeks in order to obtain the

right kind of information and get a research sample as representative as possible to

do justice to the study.

STAGE I - QUANTITATIVE DATA:

The first stage of the process was about us obtaining data through researcher

administered questionnaires. We started the process by refining the research

instrument by administering the first 20 of the questionnaires after they were

approved in terms of facial validity by our guide Dr. Kanchan K. Malik and the head of

department Dr. Usha Raman. The few complexities that our respondents faced were


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smoothened out and the research instrument was then administered to a sample of

120 people over a period of 20 days.

Our methodology set prior to the data collection stage stated a sample of 100

people implying that we needed hundred, complete and error-free filled-in

questionnaires. Thus to avoid any hassles and hindrances we collected data from a

120 sample group. This exercise was done hoping to eliminate the incomplete,

unfilled and incoherent data samples. However, post collection, on examining the

data collected and the research instruments on a closer level, we arrived at the

conclusion that all the 120 questionnaires were fit to use.

Thus we used the additional responses to increase the sample size and

consequently improve the representativeness of the sample with respect to the vast

population our study hopes to analyse and generalise upon. This seemed fit as the

same sampling techniques were used to obtain the additional sample of

respondents.

ADVANTAGE OF RESEARCHER ADMINISTERED QUESTIONNAIRES:

The data collection process was decided to be researcher administered thus

ensuring that the process was time consuming and repetitive to the administrator

but it ensured that none of the questionnaires were found wanting in terms of

information of any sort. This also enabled us to identify people from within the

samples who were willing to be part of the focus group discussions and thereby

aiding the qualitative stage. The people were identified and selected by the way they


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used and engaged with their display pictures and others display pictures on

Facebook and also by the way they answered the open ended questions in the

questionnaire.

STAGE II - QUALITATIVE DATA:

The second stage of the process as said before was the qualitative phase. In

this stage we were hoping that this exercise would also give us a much better and in

depth understanding of the entire decision making process that goes on when a

regular userchooses a particular picture to be the display picture for ones profile

and the various factors that come into play while making that conscious decision.

The combined use of both quantitative and qualitative methods in research is

generally called triangulation or mixed methods. The qualitative research tool we

chose was focus group discussions as it allows collection of large amount of

information from respondents with different and varying perspectives. Also we feel,

the free flow of ideas and information in the exercise negate the moderators

viewpoints and bias to a considerable extent and the role of the moderator is to just

streamline the chain of thoughts and ideas. Well, one could also say that we as a

team are biased towards focus group discussions as a tool for qualitative research.

As our earlier methodology mentions we had three focus groups of five

people each with a time duration varying from half an hour to three quarters of an

hour and their opinions were taken on the following questions:


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1. What picture do you have currently on your profile? Why is that yourcurrent profile picture?

2.

What qualities do you think pictures should have for being successful

profile pictures?

3. What do you think are the important things to consider when you areselecting a certain picture as your Profile picture?

4. What qualities do you think pictures should have for being successfulprofile pictures?

5. Among all your friends on Facebook, select one picture that you reallyliked and one that you disliked and reasons for the liking and disliking.

6. If you use editing software what kind of editing is it? And how do youthink it improves the picture?

7. On others profile pictures which are edited, that do you like and whatdont you like?

8. What kind of privacy settings do you use on Facebook? How safe do youthink your pictures are on the website?

GROUP SELECTIONS:

The groups were selected with the following criteria into account:

1. Each group had at least 2 high frequency users (people who log in more than 3times a day on a regular basis) and 2 low frequency users.


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2. Each group had at least two female Facebook users to understand how theyengaged with the visual aspects of Facebook. This was done with the hope to

either confirm or challenge the well set stereotype that women generally are

very cautious about their identities on Facebook.

THE DISCUSSIONS:

After the selection of the groups, they were allotted special days and the venues for

the discussion was worked out. It was informed to all participants that the FGDs

would be digitally recorded and later transcribed but their identities will remain

confidential.

The FGDs were kick started with the question: The most important

reasons for which you use Facebook are? This question helped to open them up and

talk a bit about their profiles, and most importantly the way they engaged with the

social networking website and their experiences with it.

The question then used to steer the discussion towards our area of interest

display pictures was: What role does your profile picture play on your FB page? This

question stimulated a variety of answers but it directed the conversation in

directions beyond the scope of the study. Therefore, we interjected them with other

questions which have been listed before (not necessarily in the same order).

The purpose of the exercise was to make the questions more personal and

subjective when compared to the questionnaire and have a more nuanced


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understanding of the Why? aspect of the research questions rather than the

What? aspect which was answered in the questionnaires. This exercise gave us a lot

of information as to how individuals feel about these issues.

The inputs from these exercises were then understood in conjunction with the

quantitative data at the time of analysis in order to lend some richness to the data.

As Srinivas Melkote puts it, to give the numbers their stories.


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DATA ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATIONS

The research as the title suggests was centred on the focal point of display

pictures and the various roles played by them in the entire social networking

experience. According to the pre-existing literature that we came across during our

literature review, we found the work of Zhao et.al (2008) on Identity construction on

Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships very similar to the

concepts we were working on and we borrowed the overlying framework of the

study for streamlining and focussing our research.

The findings of Zhao et.al indicated that there were three ways in which the

users created their online identities and persona, namely, the visual, the

enumerative and the narrative. Any of the users at a time used all the three ways to

forge their respective identities but in varying proportions. The study then proved

that 91 per cent of the users relied on the visual narrative i.e. the use of pictures, and

our study focuses on this visual narrative alone.

Here we must also make it very clear to tell the reader that all the primary

data that has been used for analysis has been taken from the quantitative and

qualitative phases of the data collection process. The Facebook profiles of the

individual respondents have not been visited as part of the methodology. Thus the

word of the respondent is accepted as true and factual. The data analysis also is

presented in a fashion where we have grouped similar questions pertaining to a


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certain theme in a single subsection of the chapter and as a consequence all

questions in the questionnaire havent been answered individually.

WHY THE DISPLAY PICTURE?

Our data of the 120 respondents indicated that an overwhelming 119 of them

used display pictures on their profiles, which was a whopping 99.2 per cent of our

sample (see figure1). We attribute the jump in the figures to the constant changes in

the web architecture of the website and the friendlierit gets with every new update

in design (Papacharissi 2009) and to the fact that the website has gained immense

popularity among internet users worldwide post 2008.

Figure 1

The question which then comes to mind is a more obvious one which is if

Facebooks display pictures are so immensely popular then, what role they play on an

individuals profile and what benefits does the user get from the whole exercise?

People with

display

pictures

99%

People

withoutdisplay

pictures

1%

People using display pictures


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Our study answers the question to a large extent both quantitatively and

qualitatively and at the same time challenges the existing view in similar studies that

the display picture is an extension of the online identity. Our study indicates that at

least 85 per cent of our sample (101 people out of 120) felt that the display picture

lent a certain amount of credibility and validity to their profile. In other words what

could be said is that the display picture now is part of the identity creation process

and probably plays the biggest role in the establishing of the identity.

The availability of the display picture now not only acts as a tool of

identification but also as a filter in terms of search as the glimpse of the image helps

the user identify the person he or she wants to get in touch with. As one of our

respondents in the focus group discussions said, My profile picture distinguishes me

from all the other people who have the same names as mine; it helps me be

identified by people searching for me online. One needs to accept the fact that

when one searches for a particular name online on Facebook today to add to ones

friend list, consequently one drowns in a sea of names and is then hit by a shroud of

uncertainty on the fact who is one searching for. In such a situation, the display

picture plays the role of a distant beacon as one can clearly distinguish between the

wanted and the unwanted with its help.

These analyses, as a consequence, take us to two very important questions

which are, if the display picture is actually as important as the primary data collected

suggests then, how many people use pictures of themselves as their display pictures?


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Is it not a common trend to see images of sceneries, flowers and random images as

display pictures?

The results to this question indicate a trend which has not been pinpointed as

of yet by other studies, the necessity to be searchable and identifiable on the

internet easily has caused a huge spurt in the number of people who use images of

themselves as their display pictures as opposed to 2008 when the Zhao et.al study

was done where, out of a sample of 63 people a mere 27 of them (about 43%) used

pictures of themselves as display pictures.

The new trend we are pointing out has seen a consequent decline in the use

of non-personal images (images where the user is not in display) as display pictures

as these images have an adverse effect in the process of searching and identity

confirmation. This trend of confirmations in turn sees its origins in the fact that the

website as such has tried to project an image oftransparencywhich seemed hitherto

impossible with the decentralised nature of the internet as a medium.

Our primary data indicated that only a mere 10 people did not use

photographs of themselves as display pictures at the time at which the study was

conducted. Implying 110 people used photographs of themselves as display pictures

to facilitate easy identification and search online in the social networking sphere of

Facebook. These statistics translate to 92 per cent of the sample clearly indicating

that a lot more people use display pictures as a tool to establish their online

identities rather than merely as an extension of their online identity (see figure 2).


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The growth itself in the trend of using pictures of the self as display pictures in the

two studies is over 100 per centin a time span of about 4 years (Figure 3).

Figure 2

Figure 3: Zhao et. al v/s Deshbandhu, Tunga

In one of the focus group studies we conducted, all the members were

unanimous in acceptance to the fact that the display picture was ones window to

People using

display

pictures of

themselves

92%

People using

other

pictures as

display

pictures

8%

What kinds of pictures are being chosen?


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the rest of the world of social networking and if one had a clear identifiable image

of themselves as a display picture then one was tapping into the vast potential that

the concept ofdisplay picture had to offer to a user on Facebook in terms of cyber-

social capital and acceptance.

ROLE OF DISPLAY PICTURES ON THE ONLINE IDENTITY:

The question that we will now look at is the role that display pictures play in

the process of online identity creation. This aspect is one where our study found

similar results to that of Zhao et.als 2008 study as more or less a lot of people did

feel that the Facebook display picture needed to be consistent on 2 very distinct

levels:

1. The first level being that the images needed to be in tandem with theonline profile that was created. The display picture must be consistent

with other content that was posted earlier to this account.

2. The second being that if the users are known by a part of their onlinesocial circle in the offline space too, then, their profile must be consistent

partly if not entirely with their offline representation of themselves.

There seemed to be a very consistent understanding and engagement with

the first level by the respondents of the quantitative portion of our study as they

were all mostly aware of the fact what Zhao et.al call the nonymous creation of

identity which means the process where the user creates his or her own identity in

the presence of their social groups. Most of our users claimed to carefully scrutinise


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their friends new pictures on display. In fact, almost 70 per cent of the people felt

that the display picture selected by the user must be real in the sense that they

should be able to associate and identify with the user through it.

The second level, on the other hand, seemed to be more practical in

nature as several respondents in the focus group discussions felt users were

inconsistent with their offline identities in the online spaces.

Some even felt that once the display picture and identity were set in these

online spaces of social networking, the set identity limited the ability of the users to

be whoever they wished in such spaces, from then on, the users limited themselves

to the created identity.

One must make here a clear distinction that the way friends react to display

pictures is very dependent on the nature of relationship one shares with the friend in

terms of physical proximity and the offline touch. The friends online were found to

be more accepting of small deviations from the pre-existing identity whereas friends

who were present in both the offline and online spaces at the same time were more

rigid and objected more to such changes.

Another trend that came to light when the study was being conducted was

the role that ideologies, interests and hobbies played in the process of display

picture selection. We were surprised to find that not many people posted display

pictures which were consistent with their ideologies and interests. However, hobbies

and new habits seemed to be well displayed. A participant in the focus group


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discussion felt it was his duty to let his friends online know what his current interests

were and since he had picked up playing the guitar as an interest his current display

picture showed him doing so.

Whereas when we asked a rock band lover why her favourite rock band was

not on display as her profile picture she pointed out that it would be difficult for

people not close to her and unaware of her interests to identify her profile with such

a picture online. In fact, most of the respondents to questions about what pictures

were chosen for profile pictures felt that they hated it when their friends chose

pictures of popular celebrities, actors and stars as their display pictures rather than

post pictures of themselves.

TRENDS IN DISPLAY PICTURES:

We attempted to understand the way people negotiate and set their

preferences for display pictures as a trend and we could come to the conclusion that

most of our respondents tended to change their profile pictures only once in about a

time period of 1 -3 months (30-90 days) on an average as 78 people out of our

sample of 120 people preferred to change their profile pictures in between the

above mentioned time period, this implies that at least 65 per cent of the people

tend to keep their pictures for a longer time (see figure 4).


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Figure 4

Our data from the focus group discussion suggests that unless an important

occasion comes by for which the user has pictures they are comfortable to persist

with the existing picture. A few respondents even felt that the picture must stay on

the profile for at least a month if people were to notice its presence.

What could also explain this trend and give us a possible answer is that most

of the people in the sample view the display picture as indispensable for identity

creation and validation but nothing beyond that. What seemed surprising was the

same from among the same respondents (99.2 per cent of whom use display pictures

on their profiles and 92 per cent use their own pictures), about 33 per cent of the

group felt apart from the above mentioned roles the display picture has no other

65%

35%

People keeping pictures unchanged for more than a

month

Yes

NO


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role what so ever. This clearly indicates that once you have got a display picture in

place, it need not change regularly for you to be a social success online.

In response to the question regarding ones social network liking the display

picture, a huge number of users suggested that they didnt care one way or the

other if their friends did not like their pictures as long as they themselves liked it. The

response got stronger when they were asked what they would do if their social

circles hated their display picture. The most common answer seemed to be, I dont

care, and its my picture, my wish.As many as 69 respondents were inclined to this

opinion which makes that about 57 per cent of the sample (figure 5).

Figure 5

However, conversely, in an act which reinforces the concept of selective

perception, most people i.e. 71 people out of a sample of 120 were willing to let

57%

43%

People 'unbothered' by other people's

response to their display pictures

Yes No


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their display picture remain on display for a longer period of time if it garnered a

large number of likes and positive comments from the group.

Figure 6

In search of a correlation between positive feedback for a display picture and

the amount of time a user spends online, the data indicated that the number of likes

and positive comments had no form of positive correlation with the amount of time

consequently spent online.

The other trend we were exploring as a part of our study was the use of

editing software such as Photoshop, Light room, etc. which allows you to edit the

pictures that are chosen as display pictures. Our study indicated that a mere 27

people indulged in this trend out of a sample of 120 which is about 22.5 per cent

(figure 7). The photo editing was also basic in nature if and when images were

Yes

59%

No

41%

The 'unbothered' people willing to keep the same picture

for a longer time if liked by friends online


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edited, the changes involved carrying out image contrast and brightness, setting the

colour scheme, cropping and resizing.

Figure 7

In the focus group discussions, it was revealed that a lot of people felt basic

editing, as long as it was in an aesthetic manner to enhance the chosen image, was

acceptable and highly appreciated. They were also in favour of the practice to

present photographs in various colour tones such as grayscale, sepia and similar such

pre-sets available in such software. The respondents also seemed to appreciate if the

editing was done by adhering to a certain theme or taking an idea into account. One

respondent very strongly said, she was okay with editing software being used by her

friends as long as the picture seemed real and one could connect to the image. If the

association didnt happen, then there was no point of editing in the first place.

Yes

22%

No

78%

People using photo editing software

for display pictures


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WHAT MUST A GOOD DISPLAY PICTURE HAVE?

The question about what criteria would make a picture a successful profile

picture on the social networking environment of Facebook got us a huge variety of

answers in our quantitative phase (explained later) but the two most common

answers in both the phases were:

1. The picture must be clear and the user must be in focus of the picture.2. The picture must be real and one must be able to accept the image.

A host of other answers brought out features that social networking dictum expects

from display picture such as ; the image be creatively framed, be different, have a

good background, be attractive and eye-catching. This seems like a tough set of

criteria for an image to match, but to say the least, the image must be clearly

identifiable with the user, and his or her social circle of friends must be able to

identify the image with themselves, and their perceptions of the user.

DISPLAY PICTURES, PHOTO EDITING, PRIVACY AND GENDER

Another stereotype that our study challenged was about female users

declining to use display pictures. Our quantitative data suggested that everybody in

our sample had a display picture except for one person who happened to be a male

named, Suresh. The stereotype was further destroyed to smithereens when even we

had gone into the study with the psychological framework that women did not use


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images of themselves as display pictures. But, once the data collection process

started, we realised we could not have been more wrong.

Of the 10 people who did not use images of themselves eight of them were

males and only 2 of them were females further indicating that we were erroneous in

our judgement when we started of our research. What surprised us further was that

not a single female respondent in the focus group was hesitant to talk about the

choices they made for display pictures and none of them seemed to be bothered by

fact of the predominant male gaze in the social network. They were all very cautious

about what images they uploaded on the website, and how much access was given

to people on their profile pages.

We specially had a section in our questionnaire which explored the types of

privacy settings that users deployed. We came to know that out of a sample of 120,

64 of them customised their privacy settings to ensure that the amount of

information they shared online was limited and restricted from everybody accessing

that data (figure 7).


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Figure 8

Out of the 48 female respondents who were part of our quantitative study we

were able to find out that 35 of them were using customised privacy settings to

ensure that only the people they selected could view their entire profile (figure 8) .

This amounts to about 73 per cent of the women in the sample and this is an issue

that needs to be highlighted and understood.

Figure 9

53%

47%

People with cutomised privacy settings on

Facebook

Yes

No

73%

27%

Female Users with cutomised privacy

settings on Facebook

Yes

No


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When the same question was posed qualitatively in our focus group

discussions to our female participants, we were able to get a slew of responses, out

of which the most important being that they were all aware of the permanence of

the medium. One of the respondents even went on to tell that she thought twice

before posting a picture online as she knew that once something regrettable was

posted online it could never be brought down and remnants of the digital footprint

remain online forever.

Another respondent spoke about how she used the privacy options on

Facebook to remain unsearchable to anybody but her friends and within friends too,

the website allowed her to create hierarchies and restrict acquaintances and

colleagues to some sections of her profile whereas closer friends could see a lot

more of her profile and so on.

This concept seems to be a huge success among Facebook users as people

from work or whom they knew professionally were restricted and given limited

access. However we feel, a different study must be conducted to analyse what a

Facebook user feels when he or she cant access parts of their friends profiles and

how do the dynamics of their offline relationships get affected by such online strains

on their relationships.

With respect to display pictures, the users informed us that the current

Facebook settings (as of 10th

April 2012) allowed users to lock their display pictures

and not let people with not enough access settings to either zoom into the image or


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look at it up close. The options of the right click of the mouse were limited as images

could not be saved or modified in any way.

Despite, all this settings, one of the respondents felt she was still not safe as

with options of software for editing such as Photoshop did not limit people who

could cause damage as they could still take screenshots of web pages and find

numerous ways to access information they had no access to. She concluded that in

todays digital age, having access to software such as Photoshop and then users

voluntarily putting up photos of themselves on websites like Facebook, was a

perennially scary thought.

This opinion was not shared by another male respondent in the same focus

group discussion who wasnt afraid of such trends and persisted with basic privacy

settings. He felt that his pictures online were safe and secure from any form of digital

manipulation. This trend is further reinforced by the fact that out of the 72 male

respondents who were part of the study only 29 of them used customised settings

(figure 9).


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Figure 10

Yes

40%

No

60%

Male Users with cutomised privacy settings on

Facebook


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CONCLUSION

To put all our findings in a nutshell, we would like to point out that every

medium has its inherent core competencies that distinguishes it from the rest. The

internet is the first ever completely convergent medium and the decentralised

nature of the medium offers an infinite set of radical possibilities in this social,

cultural and spatial construct.

Our data collection initially borrowed parts from Zhao et.al but then later on

went on to answer questions that were more specific to display pictures and the

visual element of the social networking experience in India among the youth. One

thing that we must all agree upon is the power the visual style of identity creation

holds over the narrative and the enumerative. It has been rightly said that a picture is

worth a 1000 words and the meaning of this is further amplified in a space such as

Facebook, where it is much easier to convey the amount of fun you had at a party via

a picture or a series of pictures rather than writing 250 words about it.

Similarly, a picture on the profile displays and describes a lot more about the

users personality than all the words that the user chooses to describe him or herself.

Our study indicated that 99.2 per cent of our sample used display pictures on their

profiles on Facebook and 92 per cent of the sample used images of themselves as

their profile pictures. About 70 per cent of the sample agreed that a display picture

of themselves was necessary to create an identity online which was such that people


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could relate to it and associate with it. On further looking at the answer to the

question how many people within the sample used photographs of themselves as

display pictures, the primary data reveals that a 110 people out of a sample of 120

were in the habit of doing so. The respondents felt that using photographs of

themselves aided the processes of identity creation and validation.

The other aspect of the study looked at the importance of friends and people

who were part of ones social network felt that there was a need for them to make

the connection between the display picture and the user who puts it up. This

connection was necessary for members of the social network to be able to associate

with the users online existence. Friends who were not present in the offline lives of

their friends were more likely to accept deviation from the true identity of the user

whereas friends who knew the user both offline and online were more rigid in this

sense according to collected data.

We also were not able to find much of a connect between the images selected

to be display pictures and the ideologies and interests of respective users as many

felt that the major role played by the display picture was to help identify them online

and that role is of paramount importance and thus they preferred such pictures

rather than ones which made them socially limited as not everyone could connect

ones colleagues to their ideologies.

We then attempted to understand the frequency of change in display pictures

and this where we were able to find out that most of our respondents kept their


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display pictures for a lot of time especially between the time period of 1-3 months as

they felt it usually took time for the people in their online social circle to take notice

of these changes. Out of our respondents nearly 57 per cent of them felt that they

didnt care if their pictures were liked by their social circle as after all it was their

picture and it didnt matter to them. Conversely however, out of the same sample 59

per cent people were willing to retain their display picture for a longer time if it was

liked and appreciated by their social circle.

However, we were not able to find any form of positive correlation between

the number of times a user changes his/her display picture and the amount of time

he/she spent on Facebook as a consequence of that or the fact that if a display

picture was widely liked by his/her social circle then as a consequence if the amount

of time spent on Facebook increases.

The study further tried to explore trends within display pictures and the way

they were perceived by users, where we were able to identify from our sample what

they felt were important traits that pictures must have in order to become socially

successful in the realm of social networking. The important things that were

mandatoryin display pictures were clarity, presence of the user, a good background

and some creativity on the part of the user when he/she uploaded it in order to

make it stand out from others display pictures.

We also explored the trend of editing of images and we were able to find that

only a mere 27 per cent of the sample was into editing their display pictures. The


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kind of editing that was done was also very basic such as changing the colour tones

of the image, resizing the image and so on. The respondents of our focus group

discussions felt that editing pictures made sense as long as the image edited was

aesthetic and the final product could be clearly associated to the user.

The final section of our study looks at gender, display pictures, Photo editing

and Privacy and here our lead stereotype was broken when we came to know that

women werent reluctant to use images of themselves as display pictures, out of the

10 respondents who didnt use images of themselves only 2 were women, clearly

indicating that our stereotype prior to the study was wrong.

The section also looks at the kinds of settings that Facebook allows for people

and how women engage

Facebook Display pictures: The construction of one's identity in the realm of social networking

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Transcript of Facebook Display pictures: The construction of one's identity in the realm of social networking