The psychology of Facebook profiles – Time Magazine Article

Came across an interesting read this afternoon regarding peoples’ personas in cyberspace. According to one psychologist, Facebook users tend to portray themselves, quirks and all, in a respectably straightforward manner.

According to the aricle, “Psychologist Sam Gosling analyzed the Facebook profiles of 236 college-aged people, who were also asked to fill out personality questionnaires.”

Read more: http://wellness.blogs.time.com/2009/12/03/the-psychology-of-facebook-profiles/#ixzz0Yg3uqJQv

Granted, a study of 236 people does not a solid study make. No truly accurate inferences can be drawn from such a small sample group, especially with Mark Zuckerberg announcing Facebook’s milestone of 350,000,000 (yes that’s 350 MILLION) users this week. And, of course, there’s some level of subjective bias going on when one fills out questionnaires.

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to consider the possibilities of extending this study. And even more fun, how about a comparative study of Facebook users vs MySpace users. Anecdotal evidence aside, I’m sure there are distinct differences in demographics and a much broader proliferation of fake and inaccurate profiles on MySpace compared to Facebook.