Thanks to some horrible “friends” on Facebook, I’ve recently been wasting quite a lot of life playing a Facebook game (I can write this now only because I’ve finally broken the spell and have grown bored). More importantly than the fact that I am now one of those losers I used to make fun of is the fact that I have spent a lot of time looking at people’s profile pictures.
Mainly I use Facebook to read my friends’ updates (though some see to come up more so than others). Therefore, I normally only see the profile pictures of my friends (and occasionally the small versions of their friends if said friends make comments about my friends’ updates). However, with my silly game, I get to see a lot more pictures. And actually, the pictures are a lot more interesting than the game itself.
Now if I were like one of my friends who recently was hired in the field of interactive media studies, I could probably get a grant to come up with some great theories about people and their profile pictures. But I’m not. Instead I’m in the English department and get paid to think about commas. So I’m going to spout my theories here and, because no one’s paying for them, I don’t have to pretend that it’s scientific or even make any sense. But I did make a pretty graph.
It Almost Looks Scientific, Doesn't It?
First off, I would say that about a quarter of the pictures are professional and owned by someone else, which means that lots of people don’t seem to take very seriously Facebook’s question about being able to legally distribute the picture.
Of the owned-by-someone-else photos, they seem to be primarily cartoons (some I recognise but many of which I’m guessing have to do with games or Japanese animation). There are also a lot of “funny” pictures (like two snow people doing it doggy style), some of other people (often famous but sometimes less famous but stereotypically attractive or “sexy”) and lots and lots of cute animal pictures. I suppose the “funny” ones are to either make one’s friends laugh or to show that one is up on the current virals going around. I guess the animal ones show that the people are loving or cuddly.
Of the non-professional photos, I’d venture that at least at least a quarter of those are of animals. Mostly pets and mostly cute. But upsettingly (to me at least) there’s a lot of dead animal photos. I guess those who post them don’t see them as dead animals, but rather trophies (deer) or by products of hard work (fish). The one picture I saw which can only be described as roadkill—well, I really don’t know (or want to know) what that could mean to anyone.
Why do so many people have their pets in their profile pictures? I’m guessing it’s because those people don’t have children (or love their pets more than their children). Their pets are their family and that’s what they want to share with us. Because another quarter of the pictures are of people’s children: looking cute, looking not so cute, playing sports, pulling faces, fighting with other children, and being babies. I suppose whether one’s family is made up of children or animals, it makes sense that they are part of how we identify ourselves. I don’t think that’s too groundbreaking.
Okay, I’ve probably lost myself a bit with my percentages, so basically I’ve got two categories left. First, some people actually have photos of themselves. Some of these are family and/or wedding photos (professionally taken but I’m presuming they “own” them so I won’t be contacting the authorities). Quite a few of them seem quite old (and I’ve been wasting my time for over a month so I’m not just referring to the recent “retro” week). Perhaps this is how people wish they were still presenting themselves to others—younger or more innocent or still in love. Quite a few of the couple photos are a bit “fruity”—nothing too over the top, but quite a few making out pictures, which surprised me, I guess. Perhaps they’ve just got so much love they want to share it. I’d rather not partake really if you don’t mind. There are, of course, lots of the take-a-photo-of-your-reflection-in-the-mirror-with-your-phone pictures that have been commented on elsewhere—they are mostly of teen girls and most of them are pulling the same face: tipped head, eyes wide and lips pouting. I don’t like these photos.
And lastly I have my catch-all “Other Stuff” category—pictures of cars, flags, buildings, various coloured ribbons, hilarious slogans, etc, and/or pictures (stolen or owned) which have been Photoshopped in some way (though not always to look more flattering).
So what is my ultimate finding? Essentially, Facebook pictures are what bumper stickers or badge pins or bumper stickers used to be (okay, still are). They are chances for us to portray ourselves as we want to be seen. Whether or not we’re successful in “promoting” ourselves to our friends (or the people we want as friends), well, I suppose that depends on them. In all this voyeurism I’ve engaged in in the last few weeks, I’ve not come across a single picture that made me think “God, I wish I knew that person.” But that may have more to do with me being a misery guts than with the photos themselves.
For the record, my Facebook picture was initially the one and only picture of myself that I can tolerate looking at; then I changed it to a stolen picture from a television show I love; and currently it’s a humorous pretend Blue Plaque I created. What does that say about me? I’m vain and would prefer to live in a completely imaginary world.
Fair enough.
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Here’s an “official” analysis of profile pictures. However, they were looking at dating sites so the purpose is slightly different and therefore doesn’t necessarily cancel out any of my incredibly wise analysis.
