Do Our Actions Speak Louder Then Words?
Introduction:
In our new world of text, tweets and post what we say has taken a larger role in our everyday life. We have learned to “follow” our “friends” by what they post on Facebook , gratify them with a “Like” if they have a new picture, and “tweet” about them is they are doing something funny. We are sending them messages all the time, but are the messages that were sending just words? Or do they mean something too? Is what people are “posting” and “tweeting” what they really mean and would they ever say the same thing to their audiences face?
Justification:
In the past few years I have added people as Facebook “friends” that I don’t know. I have chosen to post and to not post relationship statuses based on what others will think. I have wished people I barely know “Happy Birthday.” And talked to people on the online world I would normally not talk to in public. But this makes me wonder, I am more of “my-self” online or in public. Do I say what I really mean in the real world or do I allow myself to speak my mind only where there are little consequences, such as social networking sites. When others see my social networking page they see it as a depiction of me. They think, “That is who She is,” they will think this whether they have ever met me or not. Future employers will look at my Facebook page to see is I am the type of person they want to hire. Therefore this makes me wonder, is what I am saying meaning more then what I am doing?
Scope:
I would like to understand how what we say on Facebook and how we act, is in relation to how we view our self and how others view the individual user. Are we saying what we mean or are we saying what we think other want us to say? Would others believe what we tell them and show them in real life or do they take more merit in what they see about us on Facebook?
Research Method:
I would perform my research in two ways: survey and in-depth interview.
Survey: I would survey individuals between the ages of 16- 25 who are both male and female, of all ethnicities, from all over the United States. I have chosen this age group because they are likely to have Facebook and rely on it heavily. The questions would be multiple choice and all would involve answer if they participated in specific actions involving social media sites. I would select all my participants randomly and hope to have 300 participants. I first like to understand how people use their Facebook (e.i. what do they post, pictures, post, places, friends.) Then I would like to understand what they believe about what others post. (e.i. If you see three pictures of people drinking would you consider them heavy drinkers? What if you saw 5 pictures?)
In Depth Interview: After surveying these participants I would interview 30 people for this part of my research. The in depth interview has three parts.
(1) I would tell the entire interviewees, that I am looking for a new employee at my company. I would ask them to watch a prerecorded interview of candidates who I am considering to hire. The people I am interviewing for my in depth interview, would watch three different candidates for the job interviews. I give them a short page long sheet to analysis the candidates and take notes on. They will rate the candidates for the job interview on who they recommend I hire and who they think I shouldn’t hire.
(2) Then I will show them a print out of each candidates Facebook page as it would be seen if you were to go to their Facebook page online. I will ask them to take a look at the profile for five minutes. They will have access to all pictures, posts, and info (all the same information a “friend” would be able to see if they visited your page.) I would ask them to make an analysis about that users life. I would then ask the participants to rate each candidate again based solely on their Facebook page.
(3) Finally I would ask the interviewees to rate the candidates on both their Facebook and their pre-recorded interview and make a final decision on who I should hire. After given their answer I would try to weed out why they chose the candidate they did and how they made that decision. I would later analyze if they made the same decision as they did when just saw the interview of if they agreed with the decision they made based on Facebook.
By conducting a survey and an in depth interview, I will be able to understand if what people are doing online is equivalent to what they are doing in real life (survey). And if we are more likely to believe what we read online then what we see and hear in real life (interview.)
Hypothesis/Predictions:
I believe that the research will show:
(H1) Social network users are not completely honest on their online pages.
(H2) People believe that sites such as a Facebook Profile Page are a direct replica of the users personality.
(H3) People put more merit into what people say on Facebook then what they say in real life.
If my hypothesis proves to be true it will show that our words mean more than our actions. And the good ol’ saying “Our actions speak louder then words” will no longer hold true.
Implications:
The implications of this study will show that we should no longer relay as heavily on Facebook as we do. It is my hopes that employers and high education institutions will no longer rely as heavily on the information they get from Facebook. I also believe that this study will encourage everyday people to judge the information on Facebook Profiles with a less bias and ask themselves, “Do I do that?” before they make assumption of others profiles.
Limitations:
The limitations that would need to be understood about my study is that I would need to understand that not all participants would be honest with all reactions. Though I would try to circumvent this issue by having a vast number of people being surveyed and interviews I would still have to be careful. Besides that I would need to make sure that I am asking non-bias questions and make sure that I have no leading questions in my survey and interview.
Literary Analysis:
Just 10-20 years ago I remember growing up and having friends, family and teachers tell me “your actions speak louder then words,” “Talk is cheap,” and “quit talking, start doing.” But these saying are starting to be no longer valid. In the past 20 years, what we “say” has become way more influential than what we are doing. But when we “say” something it is not limited to the words that come out of mouths, but also to what we type on social media networks, IM (Instant message) to friends, and what we “post” about ourselves. Our Facebook profiles are thought to be depictions of us, so why would we ask people questions when we know that we could just check their profiles and find the answer.
I am predicting that this study will show us that :
(H1) Social Network users are not completely honest on their online pages.
(H2) People believe that sites such as a Facebook Profile Page are a direct replica of the users personality.
(H3) People put more merit into what people say on Facebook then what they say in real life.
Are We Saying What We Mean?
When you open up a “friend’s profile” you are able to see all their status updates, where they have been tagged, pictures they are in, where they have recently been, and much more. But do you ever wonder if it is all true. How do you know what they are saying is actually true? Most people just believe that it is true and do not give it another thought. Are your Facebook Friends as open as you think? Some studies suggest that we are not as honest online and many believe we are. When studying online dating sites, Jennifer Gibbs and her team, found that people are more likely to be honest with people who they do not know and less likely to be completely honest with people they know(Gibbs, 2006). Therefore this suggests that we are not saying everything we believe in relation to Facebook. If we know our friends then it is important for us to only show them what we want them to see, not the absolute truth about us. Though we are less honest with the people we know, it is also true that we self-edit some of what we say before we say it. Another study recognizes that due to social media sites, there has been a rise in online harassment in high school aged students which jumped 72% in the year 2005 (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield ,2008.) The authors further say that many of the acts of bullying would never come into the physical world, but they are only happening online. This shows us that many people are acting meaner online then in real life. This same study has further data to show that people will even use more racial slurs in on unmonitored chat rooms then they will normally use in real life.
Do not let yourself believe that these online personal attacks of bullying and harassment do not mean anything. In the study, Why Must You Be Mean To Me? Crime and the Online Persona, the author, Chris Reed, illustrates that if these attacks were happening in the physical world, they would be illegal (Reed,2010.) Reed believes, “online persona always has a relationship to a real person, and thus and intentional act to an online persona should be treated as an intentional, though indirect act on a [person].”
Why do we believe that a Facebook Profile represents us as a person?
Being that it is clear that we do things on Facebook that we would not do in person, the next question presented is why do we believe that Facebook is a better representation of one’s personality? Mostly because we (the user), decides what we post on Facebook. The authors of Persistence and Change in Social Media, stated,
“The author and content [of social media] are closely intertwined. Participation via social media involves a host of small cumulative activates such as editing a profile, uploading pictures and adding status and availability information. All of these social practices together create a very personal portrait of any individual and [their] online persona” (Hogan &Quan-Hassw, 2010.)
This statement holds true. The more freedom we have to control the content about us shows others that this is who we are and the life we live. Not to mention it also shows what type of people we like to associate with. These “friends” can be actual friends in real life, acquaintances, or even strangers. The only thing that any new onlooker can tell about you r “friend” is that you would like to associate with them and therefore you must be similar. By our online lives in the social media world, outsiders are able to make judgments about us and how we live our lives.
Why do we believe Facebook over what is said in the physical world?
When we read something we believe that the text written on the page has truth to it. When something is written it has more merit then when it is said aloud. One study analyzed how people listened to statement and then analyses whether they thought it was true or false. After reading a transcription of the conversations that they had just listened to, the participants believe the statements 25% more likely to be true then when they just heard what was being said (Burgoon, Blair, & Strom, 2008.) This shows that we are likely to believe what the text says more than what a fellow person says. But that’s not the only reason that we believe text over a conversation, in Jeffrey Hancock’s study, On Lying and Being Lied To: A Liguistic Analysis of Deception in Computer- Mediated Communication, it is explained that when someone is lying to you in a conversation they tend to give less details and are not confident with what they are saying. But when someone in telling a lie via a written text document the opposite is true. When the lie is written into words, they actually give more details and produce a more truth- like document(Hancock.) Therefore the reader is still more likely to believe what the writer is saying will be true. Because of these traits the audience is more likely to believe what the sender is saying when they write the message into words then when they verbally speak the message to us.
Third Person Effect
Perceptual third person effect explains that “people will perceive that the mass media messages will have greater effects on others then on themselves.” (Severin &Tankard, 2001.) This theory can help explain why others will put more merit to explain why we believe that others Facebook profile is true and our profile is not a representation of us. Therefore enforcing the idea that we believe that our actions do not speak louder than our words.
Bibliography
Hancock, Jeffrey, Lauren Curry, Saurabh Goorha, and Michael Woodworth. "On Lying and Being Lied To: A Linguistic Analysis of Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication." Discourse Processes 45.1 (2008): 1-23. Print.
Reed, Chris. "Why Must You Be So Mean To Me? Crime and the Online Personal." New Criminal Law Review: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 13.3 (2010): 485-514. Print.
Severin, W. J., & Tankard, J. W. (2001). Communication theories. New York: Addison Wesley Logman.
Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, and Patricia Greenfield. "Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships | Mendeley." The Future of Children 18.1 (2008): 119-46. Print.
