What Your Facebook Profile Says About Your Personality
Six years ago, I was a freshman in college. Facebook had just launched, and at the time was a closed network restricted to an approved list of universities. Not wanting to be left out, I quickly began a small campaign persuading my classmates to e-mail the powers that be in Palo Alto demanding our university be included within the network. We’d be damned if we were left out of the coolest thing since beer pong. Within a month, we succeeded. Every encounter from then on with a new friend, or new crush ended with “Are you on Facebook?” And, the inevitable poke wars began. Oh, the simpler times.
Having just celebrated its sixth birthday, Facebook’s evolution is unmistakable. With over 500 million users, it reigns as the social network champion. Even if you’ve never joined the site, or now count yourself among the roughly 37,000 who have left the site in protest over privacy concerns, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of Facebook.
And it has a lot of versatility and uses among its users. Everyone uses the site differently and to varying degrees. Some are extremely active, others less so. The way users utilize the social network can reveal a lot about them. Having spent the last six years on Facebook, my relationship with it has changed and evolved as well. I recently began classifying people into various personality groups based on how they participate on the site. See if you can identify your Facebook personality or who in your circle falls in these categories.
The Voyeur: The Voyeur likely has over 600+ friends, but yet their wall hasn’t been updated in months. Their profile shows minimal signs of life, and you can’t remember the last time you saw their name pop up in your news feed. They seem harmless, but beware they are watching your every move and taking notes.
The Stalker: Not to be missed, the Stalker is known for commenting on your Facebook status often within minutes of having posted it. You post a status update about your evening plans, and before you complete your breathe, that little red notification notifies you that he has commented on your status “a few seconds ago” asking if he can join the party. Think it’s just a coincidence? Sure, keep telling yourself that.
The Complainer: These folks hate their lives and use Facebook to make sure everyone knows it. “OMG. This headache won’t go away, and I still have four more hours at work. Lame. =(.” Listen, we all have bad days at work and work is an equal opportunity pain in the rear. Seriously, it’s called social networking, not social complaining. If it’s that bad that you resort to posting daily complaints, either quit your job, or get a therapist. Maybe both.
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