Have you ever heard the phrase, "don't judge a book by its cover?" How about "don't judge a person by their Facebook?" Even though you might not have heard the second one, you've probably done it before. It’s no secret you can tell a lot about a person just from their Facebook photos; how old they are, if they have kids, who they’re dating, etc. By looking at their profile pictures or other albums, you are viewing a little piece of their life, and you can gather a lot of factual information. If they have a picture from their wedding, you know they’re married and who they’re married to.
This may seem obvious, but there’s other information viewers can gather from photos on Facebook. Many people make assumptions about a person or their character based on these photos.
“Photos seem to be the primary way we make impressions of people on social networking sites,” Brandon Van Der Heide, the author of a study on social media, said about the popular social networking site. “If your profile photo fits what they expect, observers may be unlikely to look very closely at the rest of your profile – they have already decided how they feel about you.”
In Van Der Heide’s study, students viewed Facebook profile photos and corresponding “about me” sections. They were then asked to rate how “extroverted” or “introverted” the person was. Most of the students assumed the users who had photos of themselves with others were extroverts, regardless of what the “about me” section said.
Simply put, just like in real life, people make assumptions based on what they see. As technology advances and becomes more visually focused, the less factual information is needed in order to pass judgments about users on social media sites.
