YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE IS SAYING MORE ABOUT YOU THAN YOU THINK.

You may think your Facebook or Instagram profile is just a collection of photographs, posts, friends, tags and random things you've accumulated over the years.

Other people see it differently. They see you—and their brains are busy trying to figure out who you are.

Research has found that people form impressions of others from social-media profiles, using things like photographs, posts, interests, friends and other visible information. Sometimes those impressions contain useful information. Sometimes they're wrong. That's not the point.

Research reveals that people are increasingly treating online connections as real social relationships worth vetting (investigating/looking into,) using profiles, mutual friends, photos and other visible clues to decide who they want to let into their digital lives.

Your profile isn't a psychological X-ray, but it is evidence, and people use evidence.

Your friends’ list can become part of that evidence. So can other factors, like:

• A photograph someone tags you in.

• A comment someone leaves.

• The people you regularly interact with.

• The people you follow.

• The kinds of groups you're in.

• The number and kinds of people in your network.

People may not consciously analyze all of this, but they do notice. They notice the photograph, who's with you, who keeps commenting on your stuff. They notice what you post, and  the kinds of people in your network.

They may not sit there thinking, “I am now conducting a systematic analysis of this person's social environment.” Their brain simply registers what it sees—and starts making sense of it.

What people see isn't necessarily what you meant. You know the story behind your photograph. You know why you became friends with someone. You know that ridiculous photograph was an inside joke.

However, other people looking at your profile don’t know that. They have the evidence you gave them—and the rest gets supplied by their own brain. Sometimes their interpretation will be right. Sometimes it will be completely wrong. Sometimes they'll be very confident while being wrong.

So here's the question: What story is your online presence allowing other people to construct about you? You don't have to like their story. You don't even have to agree with it. But if you understand how people make impressions, you can at least understand that the story exists.

Remember: This isn't Vegas. What happens on Facebook and Instagram doesn't necessarily stay on Facebook and Instagram. People carry impressions with them into friendships, dating, workplaces, communities, congregations relative to spiritual and religious affiliations, business, social gatherings, and so on.

So, while your digital footprint isn't a verdict about who you are, it IS part of the evidence other people use to decide who they THINK you are. Research has found that people can form personality and social impressions based on social-media profiles, and that information supplied by other people who connect with you online can influence those impressions, too.

We are living in a whole new reality.  Isn't it wise to navigate it with eyes wide open?

Stay safe and be well,

Ziana.

Ziana de Bethune