What your internet profile says about you

Has the first impression we form based on actually meeting a person become an old-fashioned way of social interaction? Lindsay J. Brown finds out

I don't judge someone based on their looks: I look them up on Facebook first. I read their interests, relationship status, and browse their pictures to see if they do things I don't.

Then I move to the next level by requesting to be their "friend" and seeing if they accept.

All this happens without any verbal interaction, but I've already decided if this person has potential. In truth, facebook has altered how I form first a first impression.

I interviewed some fellow sophomores (via Facebook, I might add) at the Claremont Colleges in California to see how the website affects their potential relationships. Some students do not find it particularly useful in sizing up social candidates.

Paulina Sanchez, a molecular biology major, thinks that it's "more practical to find information about a person by asking them" and Chelsea Esterline, a physics and Spanish major, prefers to "screen people in person before connect[ing] with them over the internet". Let them have their face-to-face dialogue, then.

Connecting people
Other students find Facebook an effective tool in navigating their college social lives. Ian Bullock, an engineering student, says he uses facebook to get information about prospective friends.

"I would feel guilty about checking the profile of someone I barely knew, but I might do it anyway," he adds.

Sarah Derry, major undecided, used Facebook to find out if her friend was single, and "befriend him on facebook ... but I never search for people before I speak to them. That's just creepy".

Creepy or not, a Facebook profile is a world of valuable information, and that information can change perceptions easily. Or it can change mine, at least. Bullock says that, with few exceptions, "a person's profile has little impact in my impression."

If it does, it's "probably due to comments written by the person's friends, or from pictures of the person that demonstrate the things they like to do".

Esterline says that she tries "not to judge people too much by their profiles because people are creating an image for themselves that may not match up completely with the way they act in real life."

On the other hand, she says it's "useful for basic screening of people... if someone's profile is devoted to their negative habits, then I don't want to get involved with them."

Drawbacks of these sites
There are snags in the Facebook screening system, of course. If that person has no profile, then I'm forced to rely on old-fashioned methods, like conversation.

Sometimes only their Facebook friends can view their profile, which means I have to friend them to find out anything useful (it's very annoying). This cyberspace drama is silly, I admit. It's also a perfect distraction from homework.

And since all I need to ask is "what's your name", it might hamper my people skills. But don't forget that first impressions and profiles are soon replaced by how someone acts over a period of time.

Paulina wisely remarks that she "values people for who they are rather than what their Facebook says."

Statistics you might want to know:

With more than 150,000 new users signing up daily, facebook.com is growing three times as fast as rival MySpace.
Facebook saw users increase 270 per cent from June last year to June this year. It now has more than 52 million users worldwide ( and a lot more to go).
MySpace.com registered lower growth of 72 per cent but still leads the market with 114 million users.
n Bebo, with a majority of users in Europe, grew 172 per cent to more than 18 million users.

Source: CNN.com, news.com

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